Ability Dreams
by weathersageK
Summary: A tournament to be the best, a kidnapped friend, a shadowy organization, and even stranger visions what does this all mean for Ash? Another grand adventure only this one might cost him his life! Rated T for violence and language
1. Chapter 1 Kean vs Ash

_**Okay so here's a new Ability shipping chapter (and this one is actually straight to the point) **_

_**Special Thanks to ASDFG96 for inspiring me to actually write this chapter (I'll tell you the reason why later if he doesn't in the comments) and Ability King KK for his OC**_

_The world had gone to hell as rain poured down outside the temple as a mysterious figure covered in shadows wandered through the halls_

"_Father! Where are you?" said the man who seemed to be in his early twenties_

_As if to answer a man with a long grey beard and ancient looking clothing came out from behind a pillar as if he knew he would come here "Hello son" the man said_

"_Why?" the young man said clearly angry at the other man who seemed to be his father_

"_Because son everything I've done I've done for you soon the kingdom will spread throughout this world and I'll give it all to you. Become the king and everything is yours!" said the old man holding out his hand_

"_Father…" said the mysterious figure as a tear rolled down his unseen face while thunder clapped in the background_

**In Pallet Town**

A 17 year old Ash Ketchum awoke in a cold sweat this was the third time he had this same dream he looked at the clock 4:47 am

"Pika?" said the little electric mouse that slept near his head until Ash's dream had woke him up

"Sorry Pikachu it was just a dream go back to sleep" said Ash stroking the little electric mouse's ears

Pikachu went back to sleep like Ash had asked though still worried about his trainer and friend

"_What's with that dream?" _Ash asked himself as he lied down and went back to sleep

A couple of hours later Ash woke up and went downstairs for breakfast as quickly wolfed down his breakfast he looked at the letter he had received a almost half a year ago when he got back from the Unova region

The letter had told him that he had been invited to a tournament that would take place exactly one year from when he received the letter the tournament would take place with all sorts of trainers from all over even gym leaders, elite four members, and even the champions from the five regions-Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova regions were invited and whoever won the tournament would be a qualified pokemon master

As soon as Ash and Pikachu was done with their breakfast they ran over to Professor Oak's house to continue with his training for the tournament

"That boy is just like his father" said Delia Ketchum as she watched her son run off to his training

**Meanwhile outside of Pallet Town**

"Well he we are!" said a boy about 18 with black hair (bangs like Edward Elric and a ponytail like Himura Kenshin) a samurai-style clothes; white pants and green gi, wooden geta  
>sandals, and carried a katana blade at his side<p>

"Are you sure about this sempai? I mean wouldn't we just be bothering him?" asked a boy with grey eyes, Black as midnight hair, about 15 years old, wearing blue jeans that were torn up from long periods of travel and a T-shirt with a silver coat with odd black markings that seemed ancient in origin over it

"Trust me all he's been doing lately is training he would love to have a challenge and would you stop calling me that?" asked the older boy

"Sorry Kane-sempai" said the younger boy

"You gotta stop reading so much manga Kean" said Kane

The younger boy Kean just laughed and said "You may be right but still I love that stuff and I know you do too"

"Yeah but I don't quote it word for word" said Kane as they went to pallet town

**Meanwhile at Professor Oak's **

Ash was training his pokemon by having them battle each other he knew they were already strong but to win the tournament he and his team would have to be better than the best

"Hey Ash!" called a boy in a green T-shirt and shorts named Tracy

"What's up Tracy?" asked Ash

"You've got visitors and one of them wants you to battle this other guy" he said as they walked towards the laboratory

When they got in there Ash heard a familiar voice "Hey Ash" said the voice

"Kane! Glad to see you again are you the one who wants to battle?" Ash asked with enthusiasm remembering that the last time he battled his Scizor with his Pikachu and lost but it was a pretty close match

"Nope In fact I had to drag this guy here to get him to battle you" said Kane pointing to another boy across the room

"Uhhh sorry if we were interrupting something" said the boy

"Huh? You didn't interrupt anything so don't worry about it. By the way who are you?" asked Ash a little confused

"Oh! I'm Kean, just call me Kean" he said

"Trust me he won't tell you his last name nobody even knows what his last name is" said Kane trying to prevent a pointless question to escape from Ash

"Okay well how about we battle outside I know a perfect place for it" Ash said

Soon the whole group including Prof. Oak and Tracy were outside watching Ash's battle against Kean both decided it would be a three on three battles with both of them using their partner pokemon as their last pokemon

"I'll go first Kain I choose you!" said Kean as a Houndoom emerged from the pokeball

"Okay then Quilava I choose you!" said Ash as he sent out his pokemon

"Yup that's Ash a head on battle is just what he would do" said Kane as the battle began

"By the way Kane I would like to know why that boy nicknamed a Houndoom after you" said Tracy

"No he didn't name it after me it's spelled differently. He gives his pokemon nicknames based off manga characters whose name begins with the letter K" said Kane

"Hmm that is pretty odd" said Prof. Oak

"You don't know the half of it" said Kane and the battle was over with Kain the Houndoom fainted from Quilava's eruption attack

Then both boys sent out their next pokemon Ash choose Infernape

"Go Kanda!" said Kean as he sent out an Absol

Both of the pokemon battled with speed while he battled Kane brought up one more factor about Kean to Tracy and Prof. Oak

"One more thing he only uses Dark type pokemon but he never told anyone why" said Kane as the fight continued

"Wow Ash never battled a Dark type user before this'll be a great battle for him" said Tracy

The battle continued until both pokemon were panting heavily

"Quick Infernape use Mach punch!" said Ash as Infernape charged towards Kanda with blinding speed Kean issued a quick order to Kanda

"Use psycho cut!" Kean said

Absol gathered psychic energy and placed it in the blade on the right side of its face and shot it straight at Infernape there was no time to dodge and Infernape went down making Kanda the Absol the winner of this round

The next round would be a tie breaker for the two as Ash sent out Pikachu who was ready for anything

"Is that your partner Ash?" asked Kean

"Yeah" Ash responded

"Good so here's my partner go Kyohei!" said Kean as a Drapion appeared

The battle began with Drapion unleashing a powerful aqua tail while Pikachu swiftly dodged it

Kyohei followed it up with a series of Cross poison attacks which Pikachu dodged

"Now Pikachu use Thunderbolt!" said Ash

"Use aqua Tail on the ground!" said Kean

Kyohei the Drapion did as he was told and when Pikachu unleashed it's thunderbolt Kyohei was not only able to dodge it but thanks to all the water that was on the battle field the thunderbolt zapped the water which formed a path for the electricity to go back and hit Pikachu it didn't do much damage but it did distract Pikachu long enough for Kyohei to unleash a Cross Poison directly with Pikachu sending it flying back

"Finish it off with pin missile!" Kean said

Kyohei the Drapion obeyed firing a series of needles at Pikachu

"Quick use electro ball" said Ash

At this Pikachu stood up and threw a ball of crackling electricity at the pin missals destroying all of them and hitting Kyohei head on causing him to fall back

"All right let's finish this up with bolt tackle!" said Ash as Pikachu began charging at Kyohei while electricity surrounded its body

"Use cross poison!" said Kean but it was too late Pikachu had collided with Kyohei the Drapion and Kyohei went down hard making Ash the winner

"We did it!" said Ash hugging his Pikachu

"I knew I wouldn't win if Kane-sempai holds you in such high regard" said Kean returning Kyohei to its pokeball

"Oh come on it was a great match and what does sempai mean?" Ash asked confused

"It's a long story" said Kane as they walked onto the battlefield where Ash and Kean were

"You were pretty good are you in the tournament?" Tracy asked

"No and besides I only have four pokemon" said Kean

"So are the rest back at your home?" Ash asked

"No I mean I only have four pokemon period and here is my fourth pokemon Kurogane" said Kean as he sent out a Pawniard and quickly returned it to his pokeball

Before any of them could ask another question out of the blue came a familiar but panicked sounding voice "Ash honey!"

"Huh Mom?" said Ash as Delia Ketchum came running up to him exhausted with a panic look on her face "What's wrong?" he asked

"Someone came to our house she was badly injured and she asked for you" said Ash's mother

At this Ash went running to his house with his mother, Kane, Kean, Tracy, and Prof. Oak who were all curious as to who this person was and how she got injured

When they got to Ash's house they opened the door and saw who it was she had short blond hair that was all messy now from whatever had caused her injury, she wore a black karate gi that was torn in places from whatever happened there was no doubt in his mind Ash knew that this was Greta a member of the Battle Frontier and head of the Battle Dodjo

"Greta what happened to you?" Ash asked

"Ash I need…you to… save Anabel!" Greta said weakly

_**Okay not bad for a first chapter **_

_**Also since Ash's pikachu knows at least five moves (thunderbolt, bolt tackle, iron tail, quick attack, electro ball, etc) now do you guys think I shouldn't put a limit on the pokemon's attacks?**_

_**By the way if you're interested in where the names for Kean's pokemon came from here they are (also I got the idea for the name Kean because it's an Irish name that means ancient according to an internet site I found) Tell me what you think of them**_

_**Drapion-Kyohei-Durarara**_

_**Absol-Kanda-D. Grey man**_

_**Houndoom-Kain-Nora the last chronicle of Devil doom**_

_**Pawniard-Kurogane-Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles**_


	2. Chapter 2 Kidnapped!

_**And so here's chapter 2 so what happened to Greta? You'll find out if you read on! **_

**Pallet Town Ash's house**

Greta was exhausted she looked and no one could blame her

"What happened to you?" Prof. Oak asked

"Well basically it went like this…" Greta responded

**Flashback a couple of hours ago**

Anabel and Greta were both in Greta's car heading for Pallet town they were going there to visit a certain trainer that Greta knew that her best friend Anabel had her eye on

"So when we get to pallet town are you going to ask him out?" Greta asked causing Anabel to blush

"G-Greta! That's ridiculous We're only going because according to Scott and Noland said that Ash is in that tournament and we're going there to challenge him to a battle to help him with his training" said Anabel even though it was true that Anabel had feelings for Ash even though he obviously didn't love her back since he couldn't read her heart

"Okay, okay" said Greta trying to calm her best friend though she couldn't help teasing her with her crush on the young trainer

Suddenly out of nowhere a blast of energy came at the car blowing it up luckily thanks to Greta's martial arts skills and Anabel's psychic abilities they were both able to escape with little or no damage to them

"What the hell was that?" Greta yelled out

"Excellent work you both just avoided death as expected" said a mysterious man who was covered in a cloak who flew into view on a Hydreigon that was most likely the cause of that attack

"Who are you?" said Greta

"For now all you need to know is that if you don't defend yourself you're going to die!" said the man jumping off Hydreigon which unleashed another dragon pulse attack aiming right for the two

Greta managed to tackle Anabel to avoid the dragon pulse attack since Greta knew that Anabel was scared stiff of all dark type pokemon

"Okay you asked for it! Go Medicham!" said Greta sending out her psychic and fighting type

"Use Ice punch!" Greta said knowing that since it was a dragon type Hydreigon would be hurt very badly with this attack

"Dragon rage" said the man as Hydreigon shot a blast of blue energy at Medicham throwing it back and causing it to faint instantly

"Finish it" said the man as Hydreigon charged up for another Dragon rage attack that would no doubt kill Medicham

"Look out!" Greta yelled tackling Medicham but it was too late Hydreigon unleashed its dragon rage and Greta and her Medicham were caught in the crossfire

"Greta!" said Anabel as the smoke from the attack covered the area where Greta was

"That's it! I won't forgive you for-" before Anabel could say anything the man had managed to sneak up to her and threw a bottle of sleep powder he had at the lavender haired girl causing her to fall asleep instantly

The man grabbed hold of the Salon maiden and got on top of Hydreigon ready to fly away when he heard "W-wait we're not done yet" said Greta who had returned Medicham to its pokeball and was barely standing herself

"So you're still alive good now here's a message I want you to deliver to this person" the man said throwing a picture at Greta

"Tell that person that if he ever wants to see this girl alive then he should meet me at the base of Mt. Silver in one week" said the man before he flew off on Hydreigon with Anabel captive

Greta looked at the picture the person in the picture was none other than Ash Ketchum

**Back at the Ketchum house**

Greta told them the whole story leaving only the parts about Anabel's crush on Ash out since it was Anabel's job to tell Ash about her feelings

"Oh dear this is not good" said Prof. Oak pacing back and forth

"What are we going to do it looks like a trap if you ask me" said Kean

"Well we know we aren't sending Ash to do this alone" said Kane

"Yeah but if they just want me then they don't need Anabel so they might keep their word" said Ash

"I doubt it" said Kane

"Yeah it sounds to me like they might want to use her and maybe you too for human experiments just like in Durar-Ow!" said Kean who had just been hit in the head by Kane

"You're not helping the situation" said Kane as Kean rubbed the back of his head from the pain of Kane's punch

"So what are we going to do? It'll take three days to get to Mt. Silver from here if we flew on our pokemon so we have only three days after today" said Kean

"First let's get Greta better" said Tracy

"I'll be fine I just need some rest and I'll be back on my feet" said Greta

"Meanwhile we should probably train up our pokemon for the next three days. I have a plan" said Kane

**At a mysterious laboratory**

Anabel had woken up from sleeping to find herself strapped down to a table with her arms put in restraints with one of her sleeves pulled back exposing her right arm

"Ahh so you're awake" said a creepy voice

"And just in time for your shot" said the man his face was covered by a doctor's mask and white doctor clothing that made him appear as if he were a ghost with glasses

As he inched closer to Anabel she tried to struggle to get free but to no avail

"Now, now there's no need to be so feisty it'll only make it worse for yourself" said the doctor as he grabbed hold of Anabel's arm and put a needle to her arm and injected some kind of liquid into her whatever it was it made her feel like she was burning up inside so she let out a painful scream

"Well it's a given that it would be painful but for the sake of our plan you'll have to deal with it" said the doctor calmly as if someone suffering was nothing new to him at all

Soon Anabel passed out from the pain hearing he doctor chuckle before she fell into deep sleep

**Three days after intense training in Pallet Town**

Ash and the rest of the group were all set Kane had Skarmory ready to fly him to Mt. Silver while Ash had requested Charizard from the Charicific valley to fly Kean and Greta to Mt. Silver and lastly Ash brought out an old friend of his Pidgeot who had finally rejoined his team after the flock that it had been guarding had gotten strong enough to protect themselves from dangerous predators like Fearow

"Everyone ready?" Ash asked

Everyone nodded

"Let's go!" said Ash as Pidgeot flew off with Kane's Skarmory right behind him along with Charizard carrying Greta and Kean

**Back at the laboratory **

Anabel had just woken up the last thing she could remember before she passed out was a doctor chuckling but that was it everything else was so fuzzy

What's more Anabel was cold she felt like someone had put a layer of ice under her skin as she shivered she noticed she was in a cage. The cage was big enough to stand in and walk around a little so she managed to stand up and walk around the cage hoping it would warm her up somehow. While walking she noticed that she was in some kind of room that was loaded with cages some were huge enough to store a Snorelax and others were small but numerous cages most likely for small pokemon

"Where am I?" she asked herself when she noticed that all of her pokeballs had been taken so she couldn't have them bust her out

"Your awake good to know" said a familiar voice as she turned her head she noticed the cloaked figure from before who had kidnapped her

"Who are you and what do you want?" Anabel asked still shivering

"Hmm cold?" asked the man ignoring her question he left the room and came back with a bowl of soup it was warm but watery tasting Anabel didn't know if the soup was drugged or not and she didn't care if it was she was hungry and she was cold so the warm soup made her feel much better

"Lonely aren't you? Don't worry the hero you've wanted will be here soon" said the man as he left the room

Anabel didn't like the sound of that one bit

_**So who is the cloaked guy? Where is Anabel? What did the doctor do to Anabel? And what did the man mean? You'll find out (or not) in the next chapter**_


	3. Chapter 3 Gathering evil

_**And here's chapter three I'm having fun writing this story (just what I needed to get back into the swing of Ability Shipping)**_

**At the base of Mt. Silver**

Ash and the gang landed at Mt. Silver they had a couple of hours before they were expected. They all went to their assigned positions and waited for the man to show up if anything bad happened they would jump in to help Ash. It was a basic strategy but it was all they had

"Are you sure about having Kane so far away from us?" Greta whispered to Kean who was a couple of feet away from him

"You don't need to worry about Kane he could probably beat this guy by himself. I'd bet my life on it" said Kean knowing exactly what Kane was capable of "Even so we should be careful this guy might have backup or something" Kean finished

"Exactly use flamethrower!" said a new voice

A blast of searing hot flames barely missed Kean as he rolled away from where he had been hiding

"Looks like we've been found out" said Greta sending out her Medicham as the pokemon a Skunktank and its trainer stepped out of the shadows along with another trainer who had a Milotic with her

"Damn looks like that's the case" said Kean sending out Kyohei the Drapion "who are you?"

"I am commander Jupiter of the former Team Galactic" said the trainer that had the Skunktank she wore a very unusual piece of clothing that made her look like she was set to go into outer space along with an odd hairstyle that made her look even stranger

"And I am Team Aqua princess Pearl" said the other women who looked about 18 with long black hair in the form of a ponytail with a Team Aqua bandana over her head and was wearing team Aqua clothing including blue jeans that were ripped just above her knees, wore a black and white striped shirt that solely covered her chest, and a small blue jacket over that along

Greta gasped "Team Aqua and Team Galactic but you guy were-"

Jupiter immediately interrupted her "Disbanded I know but now we are in charge of Team Aqua and Galactic under the rule of our organization-"

"Quiet! They don't need to know about that" said Aqua princess Pearl

"Oh right I just figured since they're going to die it wouldn't matter" said Commander Jupiter with a sick laugh

"Any ideas?" asked Greta

"Split them up. I'll take Jupiter she does things I find inexcusable for a dark type trainer" said Kean with a look of determination

"Good I know my Medicham can handle her Milotic" said Greta knowing that her Medicham's thunder punch would definitely help her with the battle

"Let's…GO!" said Kean as he and Kyohei went after Jupiter and Greta along with her trusty Medicham went after Pearl and her Milotic. Both of them managed to separate the two as their battles began in the forest

**Meanwhile with Kane**

Kane looked up and saw a bright light and could tell it was a fire type attack that had just been used

"_Damn it! Reinforcements_" Kane thought as he was about to try and help Greta and Kean until he heard a new voice yell out "Use Fire blast!"

Kane dodged the searing hot flame which had caused a small fire to appear behind him

"Going somewhere?" said the voice as an Arcanine and its trainer stepped out of the shadows the trainer wore a Team Magma cloak and hood which almost completely covered his face he had short red hair under the hood, wore black pants with a red stripe on each of the sides along with a black T-shirt that had the red Team Magma logo on it

"Team Magma? I didn't think there were any of you guys left" said Kane

"Well with dad gone things sort of fell apart but now I'm in control and that means your toast" said the Team Magma member

"Well nameless Team Magma leader I think your plan is about to backfire" said Kane sending out his Empoleon who would have an advantage over Arcanine in battle

"I don't think so and my name is Mark. Team Magma leader Mark" he said

And their battle began

**Back with Ash**

Ash could hear the battles going on in the forest he considered going to help them but that was before he saw a certain silhouette coming towards him

"So you came that's good to know" said the cloaked man

"Where's Anabel?" Ash asked through gritted teeth

"Straight to the point huh?" said the man taking off his hood exposing a familiar looking face but he couldn't put his finger on it "Well come with me and you'll see her soon" the man finished

The man's face was pretty plain he had pale skin (most likely thanks to lack of exposure to sunlight under that hood) short slightly grey hair though the man looked like he was in his early thirties at the latest and piercing icy blue eyes that chilled Ash to the core

"No way!" yelled Ash as Pikachu jumped off his shoulder ready for battle with electricity crackling off of his cheeks

"A fighter to the end. Oh well I suppose I should have expected this" said the man with a sigh as he jumped off Hydreigon's back and the battle began between them

**Back to Kean's battle**

The fight wasn't really going anywhere every time Skunktank unleashed a flamethrower Kyohei the Drapion countered with Aqua tail which negated both attacks in a field of steam

"Your good" Kean admitted "shame you had to be a lowlife kidnapper or I would be enjoying this battle"

"Oh please even if I wasn't part of this group you still wouldn't enjoy this battle since I was a part of Team Galactic" said Jupiter

"Trust me I've had my experiences with the past so whatever you were a part of in the past wouldn't matter to me but since your part of this I guess I can't forgive you" said Kean as Kyohei unleashed a barrage of pin missiles

Skunktank managed to dodge a couple of them but they were too fast "_Damn this won't go well" _thought Commander Jupiter trying to think up her next move

Then suddenly the sound of a whistle was heard throughout the forest

"_What was that?_" Kean thought

"Finally! Skunktank use smokescreen!" said Jupiter as a cloud of Smoke appeared blocking all view for Kean and Kyohei and when the smoke cleared Kean looked and saw that Commander Jupiter was leaving by flying away on a Golbat following a Hydreigon

"What's going on?" Kean asked himself as he ran through the forest back to the place where Ash was last seen

**Greta's battle a few minutes ago**

Greta's fight was going well though she had to admit this 'Aqua Princess' was definitely a good battler right now Milotic was Paralyzed thanks to Medicham's Thunder punch but Milotic managed to counter with a Twister attack

"If you weren't part of kidnapping my best friend I would be having fun with this battle" said Greta

"Whatever I really couldn't care less about whoever we kidnapped but orders are orders" said Pearl having her Milotic use Recover

"_Looks like I should do the same" _thought Greta as she ordered her Medicham to use Recover as well when suddenly the sound of the whistle was heard

"Huh? What's that?" Greta said

"About time! Milotic use Ice beam!" Said Aqua Princess Pearl as a wall of ice showed up in between Milotic and Medicham

"Trying to escape? Not likely!" said Greta as she charged at the ice wall "Medicham use Thunder punch!"

Both Greta's and Medicham's combined strength shattered the ice but it was too late Pearl had escaped by flying on her Swanna's back in hot pursuit of a Hydreigon along with a Golbat that had a trainer on its back as well

"What happened back their?" Greta asked herself as she and Medicham ran back to the site where Ash was seen last

**Kane's battle a few minutes ago**

Kane's battle was intense but he was winning pretty easily actually and not just because of type advantage the Arcanine was not brought to its full potential with its legendary speed it was no better than a fire breathing tank

"Damn it!" said Mark "Damn, damn, damn! How can this be you have to be pulling some kind of trick!" yelled the Team Magma Leader

"No trick you're just too slow" said Kane as Empoleon unleashed another water pulse on Arcanine "You know it's kind of sad Arcanine are well known for their legendary speed but yours just doesn't fit that description" said Kane making Mark even madder

"I'll show you slow!" said Mark as he held up another pokeball but before he threw it the sound of a whistle was heard throughout the forest

"Huh what's that?" Kane said as he noticed that Mark had a different look on his face a calm face "What's with that sound?" Kane shouted at Mark as he threw the pokeball he was holding

"It means this fight is over" the Team Magma Leader said as a Flygon appeared out of the pokeball "Use sandstorm!" Flygon obeyed sending up a blinding sandstorm that blocked all vision but after a few seconds it was over and Mark was gone along with two other pokemon with people riding on their backs right behind a Hydreigon

"Wait a minute… Ash!" yelled Kane as he ran to the clearing where Ash was last seen

Ash was nowhere to be found soon Greta showed up looking for Ash and then Kean showed up holding a badly beaten Pikachu "We've been played like a harmonica" he said as they all realized something

Ash had been taken as well

_**Things aren't looking good huh? Well the only thing I can say is read on your questions will be answered in time**_

_**By the way how did I do with Pearl and Mark? (I made them myself)**_


	4. Chapter 4 An SOS

_**And just like that chapter four is up! Boy I'm having so much fun writing this story! Enough of my joy on with the chapter!**_

**Back at Pallet town**

Three days later Kane, Kean, and Greta were back in Pallet town at prof. Oak's labratory a bandaged Pikachu lied down on the couch the group stopped at a pokemon center on the way back to give it some treatment before coming back

Kean was mad "Damn it! If I had finished my fight up quicker I could have-"

"It wouldn't have mattered that guy that was with Ash is strong even if all four of us were there we still probably couldn't beat him" said Greta unusually gloomy

"Wow I never knew you could be so down" said Kane

"What about Mrs. Ketchum? Shouldn't one of us tell her?" asked Kean

Everyone dissmissed that idea as Prof. Oak came into the room "Is everyone okay?" he asked

It was a pretty dumb question no one was hurt aside from Pikachu but everyone sure felt low

"Wait Kane why didn't yousend out Skarmory to track them?" asked Tracy

"It wouldn't matter Skarmory is strong but it wasn't as fast as those guys besides if they spotted him they would no doubt attack him four against one isn't good odds for Skarmory

"So how are we going to find them?" Kean said but no one in the room had an answer for that

**Mysterious laboratory**

Ash awoke on a table with his hands strapped down to it with his right sleeve pulled up exposing his right arm

"Where am I?" Ash muttered still dazed from what had happened it happened so fast the battle between Pikachu and Hydreigon in which after doing a little damage to it Pikachu was blasted into the forest by Hydreigon's Dragon pulse and when he turned his head to look the cloaked man threw a small amount of sleep poweder in his face making him fall asleep right there and the rest was a blur

"Glad to see your awake though I guess this won't make my job any easier" said a man dressed in doctoer's clothing

"Who are you?" Ash asked

"A doctor or rather _your_ _doctor" _said the man as he inched closer to his exposed arm with a shot at the ready

**At Anabel's cage**

Anabel was worried what had that man meant by 'the hero she wanted?' whatever it meant she didn't like the sound of it. What's more she was still alittle cold from whatever that doctor had done to her then the door to the room opened anabel ooked as she noticed the same cloaked man had entered

"Enjoying your stay?" the man asked coldly

"I'm cold" she simply responded not wanting to show weakness to the man

"Well maybe a companion will make things warmer for you" said the man as he left the room with a creepy chuckle

Anabel was worried about what the man meant by that then a few seconds after the man left the doctor came in with a gun in one of his hands followed by a masked grunt carrying someone who was unconscious

"Now listen miss if yu don't want this boy to be killed in front of you you will walk to the back of your cell and stay there while we drop of your new roommate" said the doctor pointing the gun at the boy's head that's when she relized that the boy was none other than Ash Ketchum the boy she had a crush on since he challenged her battle salon she did as she was told with her back to the other end of the cell as the grunt put Ash's unconscious body down at the edge of the cell and walked out without a word when the doctor locked the door to the cage he put the gun in his pocket and walked towards the door

"I hope you enjoy your new company he was an excellent paitent much more quiet then you" said the doctor as he left the room with a sick laugh

Anabel rushed over to Ash's side shaking him hoping it would wake him up when she touched him he relized he was sweating that must have meant that he had just recently received that shot from the doctor and must be going through what she felt

"A-na-bel" Ash said sliping back to consciousness

"Ash are you okay?" she mentally kicked herself for asking such a stupid question of course he wasn't okay

"I'm fine b-but I feel so warm… no I feel like I'm on fire!" Ash said trying to stand up but his legs kept wabeling

"Don't push yourself your going to feel hot for a while but then you'll feel very cold after a day or two if whatever that doctor did to you is the same as he did to me" said Anabel helping Ash sit down at the edge of the cage

Ash sat down sitting upright as he did his hand accidentually touched Anabel's cauing him to pull away "S-sorry" he said

"It's okay" Anabel said lucky for her the room was dark or Ash would have probably seen her blush as soon as her hand touched his hand "But I feel kind of cold so do you mind if I stay close to you? You feel very warm" Anabel mentally slapped herself she must have sounded so stupid

"I don't mind you feel very cool" Ash said though he sort of kicked himself for saying it and sounding so helpless when he tried to save her

As the two teens leaned closer to each other they felt much better to Anabel Ash was as warm as the morning sun for her in winter and for Ash Anabel was like a cool breeze in summer. As the two teens leaned closer to each other they fell asleep leaning on each other (practically hugging)

**Back at Prof. Oaks**

The group was worried they had called Brock, Misty (much to Kane and Kean's annoyance), Gary, and just about anyone else they could (gym leaders or otherwise) to see if they could find Ash and Anabel. Scott had soon arrived at Prof. Oak's to see if he could help find Anabel and Ash somehow

"We can't just blindly look around" said Scott

"He's right we need a tip or something to find them otherwise we might as well check the Orre region while we're at it" said Prof. Oak pacing the floor

"And when we do we raise hell on earth" said Kean sounding excited about what they were going to do when they found out where they were

"Until then all we can do is look around and hope" said Greta

**Back at Ash and Anabel's cage **

After both of them woke up they found a guard had been sitting around watching them he seemed tired so it must have been early in the morning since the only window that was open had little light shinning through it

"Huh? Oh your awake I'll get you some food and some coffe for me" said the guard as he stod up stretched as if he had been sleeping as well and left the room

Ash looked at the desk where the guard was sitting and he saw something on the desk that gave him an idea "Anabel I have an idea! Quick give me your shoes!" Ash said quietly

Anabel did as she was asked and Ash took out her shoelaces and tied them together with his own making a chain of shoelaces attached to his shoe then reaching out of his cage he swung the shoe at the desk knocking a cell phone the guard had stupidly left on the desk the cell phone slid onto a chair that had wheels on the bottom so he managed to use the chain of shoelaces with the shoe at the end to drag the chair over to the cage by swinging the shoe around the leg of the chair and managed to drag the chair over to the edge of the cage allowing Anabel to grab the phone

"I'll text Scott He'll know what to do" said Anabel texting a message as fast as she could when she was done she threw the phone back onto a box of tissues which bounced onto the desk while Ash gave a gentel push to the chair putting it close to the spot where it had last been

"It's all up to them now" said Anabel

"Yeah looks like it" said Ash as the guard came back a few minutes later with a bowl of soup and a cup of coffe for himself and sat down not knowing that his phone and his chair had moved since he had last been there

**Back at Prof. Oaks**

Scott received a text message on his phone it said this…

_Scott it's Anabel. Please do not respond to this message. Me and Ash are being held in a cage in some city not a days travel from Mt. Silver but about 2 days travel from the area halfwa between Pallet town and Tohjo falls. Please hurry and find us. _

Scott read the message twice and told everyone as they came up with ideas where they might be soon they came up with a couple of cities where they could be they came up with three options Pewter city, Viridian city, and Blackthorn city

"So let's begin our invetigation there" said Scott and everyone took a city

"I'll look in Viridian city" said Kane

"I'll go with you we'll need all the help we can get to look for them" said Tracy

"I'll take Pewter city maybe Brock can help me look" said Greta remembering one of Ash's closest friends who had recently become a part time doctor along with a part time gym leader

"and I'll take Blackthorn city maybe the gym leader can help me look for them" said Kean

"I just hope she doesn't know that you know me" said Kane as they walked out ready to get to their destinations (Since Kean had no flying pokemon he was lent Kane's Skarmory for transportation)

"Don't tell me you managed to piss her off too" said Kean knowing that Kane had a bit of a bad relationship with some of the gym leaders/elite four members

"Yeah pretty much" said Kane as he got in Scott's car along with Greta and Tracy and they drove off at speeds that must be illegal to Pewter city and would drop Kane and Tracy off at Viridean along the way

"Oh boy" Kean sighed as he climbed onto Skarmory's back and they flew off to Blackthorn city

_**So where in the world is Carmen Sandi- oops wrong song I meant where in the world are Ash and Anabel? Don't worry you'll find out next chapter (though I have been putting off my other fanfics so I should probably update them first)**_

_**Make sure to leave comments they inspire me to write more! (It's an endless sea of fun for me writing these stories)**_


	5. Chapter 5 The rescue

_**And here is chapter 5. Wow! I'm on a roll with this story! Also just for the record the reason Anabel knows that it was a two day journey from the place she was at to get to the place she's at right now (the cage/crazy doctor) the sleep powder (it was concentrated) only works for about twelve hours at the least in this case so the man could easily have thrown more at her when she was about to awake**_

**Blackthorn City**

Kean had just arrived at Blackthorn city and made his way to the gym when he got their he saw a blue-haired girl with a ponytail talking to a Dragonair he assumed that she must be the gym leader Clair

"Excuse me are you the gym leader?" Kean asked

"Yes but if you are here for a battle I'm afraid I can't accept your challenge right now" said Clair

"No you see I'm here to look for a friend of mine named Ash and according to some friends of mine they said you would be able to help" said Kean

"Oh I see so you're the boy Scott told me about. In case you don't know my name is Clair and you are" said Clair holding out her hand and Kean shook it

"My name is Kean. Though I must say I don't understand why you don't get along with a friend of mine. Although now that I think of it most of the gym leaders and Elite four members are girls and the rest of them are jealous boys and a father" said Kean

"Who exactly is your friend?" Clair asked

"His name is Kane" said Kean backing away hoping she wouldn't try and kill him like another gym leader named Misty tried once when he was traveling with Kane

"Why are you backing up like that?" Clair asked confused

"Well let's just say I have experience with some people that aren't too fond of Kane and I'm not in a mood to die" said Kean trying to have as much distance so he could run at the first sign of trouble

"I see… well that isn't much of a reason for me to harm you wouldn't you say?" Clair said

"That's it no attempt to try and decapitate me?" said Kean remembering that one time with Misty again

"No just because you are friends with that… person does not mean I should harm you" said Clair when she said Person she made it sound like she was trying to say something else

"Thank Arceus and here I thought this would end up like last time" said Kean breathing a sigh of relief

"Why? What happened?" Clair asked

"Let's not go there" said Kean

Both decided to drop the conversation and split up with their pokemon to cover more ground in an attempt to find Ash and Anabel if they were there in Blackthorn city

**At Ash and Anabel's cage**

It had been almost three days since they sent the message and so far the doctor had not done anything to them the only times they were let out of their cage was for bathroom breaks and when they did get one they were escorted by a guard and were handcuffed to them (the handcuff had a long chain) they were growing worried what would they be needed for were they just going to sit in the cage all their life but why?

"Ash you feeling okay?" Anabel asked she had recently gone back to normal as of yesterday from whatever the doctor had put into her while Ash was still shaking like a leaf

"Y-yeah I'm f-fine" said Ash trying to hide his feeling of uncomfort from Anabel

"Ash your shivering your definitely not okay" said Anabel giving Ash a hug hoping it would warm him up lucky for them the guard had recently been allowed to stand guard outside (so he could talk to people passing by instead of sitting around)

Ash blushed at the hug "A-Anabel you don't need to-"

"Yes I do you came to rescue me and you got captured it's all my fault" Anabel said with tears flowing down her face

Then Ash did something unexpected he hugged her back "No. It's not your fault it's that guy in the cloak" he said through gritted teeth "and when we get out of here he's going to pay for making you cry"

Anabel was surprised she was being hugged by the person she admired for so long maybe their life was officially a hell but she had an angel looking out for her in it

**Blackthorn City**

Kain the Houndoom was out in the streets he had a collar around his neck so no one tried to catch him

Kean had sent out Kain and Kanda the Absol to look for any trace of Ash or Anabel or one of the two people that Kean and Kyohei the Drapion had fought (they were watching the fight from inside their pokeballs). So far nothing until he saw a familiar face she was wearing different clothing but there was no mistaking Aqua Princess Pearl walking through the town with shopping bags in her left and right hands

Kain followed her until she went into a store Kain immediately followed his nose back to Kean and he informed Clair that they found Pearl and followed her from store to store until she went into a medical insurance building after a while they decided this must be the place that Ash and Anabel were being held

"You think Ash and Anabel are being held in there?" Kean asked

"It looks like it let's look in back" Clair said hoping on Dragonair and flew over to the back of the building where she saw some very suspicious characters some were wearing Team Aqua Headbands while others had caps or red hoods Clair quickly flew back without being noticed

"Yes I think they are definitely in there or at the very least connected to the kidnappers" said Clair

Soon Scott and the others were informed and a rescue plan was formed

**At Anabel and Ash's cage a few days later**

Ash was starting to get over the cold feeling but Anabel still stayed close to him hoping that she would keep him warm

"Anabel?" Ash asked

"I've been meaning to ask you something?" he said

"What is it?" she asked

"Can I try reading your heart again? I know this isn't exactly a good time but I want to try again" he asked

"No it's okay" she said as she sat across the cage from Ash sitting still while they looked at each other

Ash closed his eyes after a few minutes he heard something it sounded like thumping but it wasn't one thump it was two in unison and they felt connected as if they needed each other

"Ash?" Anabel asked

"I think I just read your heart" said Ash with a smile

**Half an hour ago in the building **

The plan was in motion everyone had gathered together and were waiting outside the building Clair and Kean had spent the last few days undercover in the building they had more than enough proof that the building was being used for illegal means so they informed officer Jenny (who had an entire police force at the ready for the plan) sadly they weren't able to go up past the 6th floor for some reason according to 'security' (if you call thugs in bad security disguises)

The plan was simple, reckless, and probably stupid too but they decided this would be best for the rescue "Everyone ready?" Kane asked

Everyone nodded the group contained the following Kane, Kean, Clair, Greta, and Brock (who had hitched a ride with Greta and Scott on the way there) They walked into the building but as soon as they did security came in and tried to stop them but they had none of it and soon the guards showed their true colors and sent out their pokemon soon the lobby was full of grunts in familiar uniforms some were wearing Team Aqua, Team Magma, Team Galactic, and even the recently disbanded Team Rocket uniforms

"Wow this is a party" Kane said

Kean seemed happy with the rescue plan "This is just like in One Piece where Luffy teams up with Captain Kidd and-"

"Not now Kean" said Kane knocking him on top of the head

"Ow! Right no time for that" Kean said rubbing the back of his head where Kane hit him

"Is everyone ready for the first part of the plan?" Brock asked the others sending out Forretress who used explosion covering the lobby with smoke allowing Kane Kean and Greta sneak past them while they were knocked over from the force of the explosion

"Okay now for our part" said Brock returning Forretress and sending out Sudowoodo who used rock throw to cover up the hallway so none of the grunts could follow them the grunts quickly regained their composure and sent out all of their pokemon the lobby roof filled with Zubat while the floor had a variety of Pokemon such as Rattata, Poochyena, Numel, Glameow, and others

"I'll enjoy this not only have they the nerve to kidnap people but to place their building in MY CITY! I will not show mercy to any of them!" said Clair sending out Dragonair who used Dragon rage making most of the Zubat in the air along with any other flying or hovering pokemon faint instantly

"Hey save some for me!" said Brock as Sudowoodo used Hammer arm on a bunch of the Glameow and Poochyena making them faint instantly as well

**In the hall**

Kane, Greta, and Kean were running through the halls following Pikachu (who no doubt could tell where Ash is because of their bond) until two familiar voices were heard

"So back for more Katana boy?" said Mark as he stepped out of a room on one side of the hallway

"You know it really sucks that I have to work with you" said Pearl as she stepped out of a room on the other side of the hall

"Shut it bosses' orders" Mark said it was clear that the two didn't get along

"Kean take Pikachu and look for Ash and Anabel We'll keep them busy" said Kane as he sent out Scizor ready for battle and Greta sent out Medicham

"You think we're letting you pass? Not likely!" said Pearl as she sent out a Kingdra and Mark sent out a Flygon

"Don't expect this to be so easy as last time this guy is my partner and he's three times stronger than any other pokemon I have!" said Mark

"Good Scizor is way better than any of my other pokemon and is my starter as well" said Kane and the battle began between the two sides

Now Mark said he and Pearl wouldn't allow Kean to pas clearly they had no idea how Kean was going to pass them or know of his past but then again no one not even Kane knew of his past. Pikachu passed both of them thanks to its speed but since Kean didn't have speed he had something else to get him past the two of them surprise

"Flygon Hyper beam!" ordered Mark

"Kingdra Hydro pump!" Pearl ordered

As the two attacks fired aimed directly at the field Kean ran right into the crossfire then an explosion was heard with a cloud of smoke filled the room before Mark or Pearl could realize what happened a harmed but not too badly injured Kean came out of the smoke and ran right past them

"What the?" Mark said Surprised that anyone would practically jump in front of a Hyper beam or a Hydro pump like that and still be alive

"Is that guy crazy?" Pearl yelled as the battle continued

"You don't know the half of it" said Kane

Greta also couldn't believe what she just saw but she didn't have time to ask as their battle with the Magma/Aqua leaders battled them

**7****th**** floor of the building (present time)**

Pikachu lead Kean through hallway after hallway until they came to a random door Pikachu stopped and pointed to it

"Ash is in there?" Kean asked and Pikachu nodded

Kean opened the door and was shocked to see Ash and a lavender haired girl in a cage kissing

"Ahhh! I'm sorry!" said Kean backing away as the two stopped their kiss and look at the door to see him

"Kean you're here!" said Ash a little red faced because of the time Kean had arrived

"Don't worry I'll get you out! Kurogane Metal claw!" said Kean sending out a Pawniard that sliced the cage bars like a hot knife through butter and both of them stepped out

"Sorry I won't tell anyone about… that thing. And you must be Anabel. My name is Kean" Kean said

"Glad to meet you" Anabel said

"Now come on let's get out of here" said Kean

"Wait we have to find our pokemon" said Anabel

"Oh great this building is huge how are we going to look for them?" Kean asked

"I know where they are. They're with the doctor on the top floor" Ash said

_**So the next chapter is the end of the search arc (don't worry there's still more chapters after that) and just to clear things up. No. Ash and Anabel did not do anything suspicious before Kean walked in so get those perverted thoughts out of your heads**_


	6. Chapter 6 Kean's ability

_**Chapter six and it's time for our heroes to pay a visit to the doctor! (Trust me it's more epic than it sounds) Yeah sorry for the long wait (I'm back in school again meaning slower updates) but enough rambling on with the story!**_

**The building 8th floor**

Ash, Anabel, and Kean ran up the steps to the 8th floor when they got there they were surprised to discover the doctor was waiting for them with a stack of pokeballs on a desk behind him. The room was huge it looked like those places that surgeons did operations on patients while students watched even though it was obvious this place was anything but a hospital

"Look who's here" said the doctor with his chilling voice

"It's over doctor whatever your name is!" said Ash

"_Whoa classic line,"_ Kean though but shook his head knowing this was no time for that

"Hand over their pokemon and we won't have to hurt you," said Kean holding two pokeballs ready for battle

"Hmm… no I think these creatures would do well for my experiments. They're very strong so they must be durable," the doctor said laughing

"Not if my team has anything to say about it!" said Kean sending out Kyohei the Drapion and Kain the Houndoom

"Oh ho ho violence well a willing patient is less fun anyway," said the doctor sending out a Reuniclus and a Gengar

"_I have type advantage but if he's sending out these two he must have a plan,"_ thought Kean knowing that as long as Ash and Anabel got their pokemon back it didn't matter if he lost or not

"Well let's begin!" said the doctor and the battle began

**Meanwhile at the bottom floor **

Officer Jenny was arresting a large number of grunts that had been running from the building and who could blame them? They were terrified of Clair alone and Brock just made it even worse so bad that they decided to cut their losses and run

Brock then tried flirting with Officer Jenny until Croagunk had showed up and delivered a poison jab to his side making him collapse

Clair walked over to Brock he knew that Clair already had a boyfriend so that alone prevented him from flirting with her "Thank you for the help" she said

"Hey you could probably have handled them all by yourself," said Brock recovering from Croagunk's poison jab

"Maybe but still thank you," she said as they waited for the rest of the team to emerge from the building hopefully with Ash and Anabel

**In the hallway with Kane and Greta **

The battle was pretty chaotic the hallway was being destroyed by both sides the longer they battled although thanks to that they now had a larger area to battle with since a lot of the walls had been destroyed opening a series of rooms most of which seemed empty

"Why-won't-you-lose already!" yelled Mark

"Because I'm stronger than you" Kane replied simply

"Quit whining it makes you look even weaker then you already are" said Pearl

"Shut it! You're doing no better than I am!" Mark yelled he was right neither side's pokemon had fainted from the battle

Suddenly a ringing was heard then both Pearl and Mark picked up a phone after a few seconds they closed the phone and smiled

"Looks like we're done here" said Mark jumping on Flygon's back as they used Hyper beam to create a hole in the wall where he escaped

"Later losers!" said Pearl as she returned Kingdra to its pokeball and jumped on Swanna's back and flew away from the building

"What are they doing?" asked Kane

"Being cowardly like always!" Greta said until a loud sound was heard and the building started shaking

"Whoa we gotta get out of here!" Kane said as he sent out Skarmory who would fly them to the street below out through the opening that Mark had made

"But what about Anabel and Ash or Kean for that matter?" Gretta asked as Kane dragged her over to Skarmory

"Don't worry those two can easily get out and even if they aren't here we don't need to worry about Kean" said Kane as Skarmory picked up both trainers and carried them to the ground while Greta wondered what Kane had meant by what he previously said

**Back at the 8****th**** floor **

Kean was actually having a tough time battling the Gengar and the Reuniclus Kyohei was holding up but Kain was exhausted from a pain split attack that Reuniclus had used on Kain with a follow up of a Dizzy punch which had confused Kain into attacking himself and Kyohei. At the same time Kyohei had managed to avoid a series of Drain punches from Gengar

"_He's tough but that should be expected since he seems to be in charge" _thought Kean as the building began shaking

"What! I thought that we agreed we wouldn't do this!" shouted the doctor as a sudden explosion caused the roof above him to crash down on him causing his pokemon to chase after him hoping their master was all right

"Now's our chance go!" Kean said as he pointed at the table where the pokeballs with the pokemon that belonged to Ash and Anabel remained untouched

"Okay! Come on Anabel!" said Ash grabbing hold of her hand as the ran to the table avoiding falling rubble

"R-right" said Anabel with a bit of nervousness in her voice (whether that was from what happened to the doctor or the fact that Ash was holding her hand Kean didn't know)

Ash, Anabel, and Kean made their way to the table where Ash and Anabel's pokeballs were sitting as the building started to collapse around them

"Quick let's go!" yelled Kean as they ran towards a hole in the wall that led to a eight floor drop to death

"Why here?" asked Ash

"Too risky to take the stairs so let's use Charizard to fly out of here!" said Kean as the roof continued caving in

"Wait! Espeon's not here!" Anabel said looking through her team

"Okay you two fly out of here on Charizard," said Ash holding out the pokeball to Kean "and I'll-!"

Before Ash could finish Kean pushed both Ash and Anabel out the hole "You two go I'll find Espeon!" yelled Kean who ran back into the collapsing building as Ash sent out Charizard who caught both Ash and Anabel while the building collapsed completely with Kean still inside it

**Later at the remains of the building **

Ash and the rescue group (including the police) were looking through the wreckage looking for Kean everyone was worried save for Kane

"KEAN! Will you come out already!" yelled Kane who removed a large chunk of rubble with the help of his Metagross

"How could you say that? Isn't he your friend?" Anabel said surprised at how cold the steel type trainer was being

"Yeah I'm worried but Kean is-"

"DAMN IT!" yelled a familiar voice as a large chunk of building debris tumbled down revealing Kyohei and Kean who had blood on his face from some wound on his forehead limping on his left leg while leaning on Kyohei

"Kean!" everyone ran over to the injured trainer

"Hey I got Espeon at the last minute." Said Kean

"Thank you but what about you?" Anabel asked

"Like I said before don't worry about it. Although you were cutting it pretty close this time Kean." said Kane

"This time?" Clair said

"Don't worry?" Ash said

"How long do you think it'll take?" Kane asked ignoring the group's questions

"Maybe a week or two at the most. I never had a building collapse on me before." Kean said simply as if a building falling on him was no big deal

"What are you talking about?" asked Brock

"Wait you did say 'not to worry about Kean' so what do you mean by that?" Greta asked

"O right I forgot to tell you… This guy is immortal," said Kane simply

"What!" the whole group yelled

"Hey quit teasing them Kane. I am not immortal I'm just really sturdy." said Kean as he sat down on a street bench

"Trust me guys he's very sturdy he got in a rockslide once and came out of it with a broken arm only and then two days later he was back to normal no medical attention at all!" said Kane

"Really?" everyone asked

"Well I've been getting hurt for a while but don't worry about me I hate it when people do that," Said Kean

"Well if you insist," said Ash giving him a light punch in the gut "Give me a warning next time you shove me off a building!"

Before Kean could respond Anabel gave him a light slap across the face "And don't worry all of us like that!"

As soon as Anabel finished her sentence Kean fell backwards but Kyohei caught him before he fell off the bench

"Oh gosh Kean!" said Anabel

"Did Anabel just kill him?" Kane asked

"Not helping Kane!" said Ash

Brock grabbed hold of the boy's arm and checked his pulse "He's fine he's just unconscious," said Brock as everyone breathed a sigh of relief

While proper medics took care of Kean. Clair chased Kane trying to strangle him for being so ridiculous in a serious situation while Brock flirted with Officer Jenny (until Croagunk stopped him with poison jab)

Meanwhile Ash and Anabel sat down on the same bench that Kean was previously sitting on

"Well that was… scary," Anabel said

"Yeah…. Listen Anabel about that... thing that happened back in the cage. I'm sorry I just-"

Before Ash could finish his sentence Anabel kissed him on the lips stopping any further apology coming from the boy

"Ash if you continue that apology I won't speak to you ever again. After all you read my heart so you should know how I feel about you," said Anabel

"Uhhh…" before Ash could say anything Greta's face popped up between Ash and Anabel and said "Well it's about time!"

"Ahh! Greta we were just…um," said Ash trying to find a decent excuse but it wouldn't work

"Who knew that a few days of being captured together could get you two together at last!" said Greta

Both Ash and Anabel blushed at thinking back to their last moment in the cage when they kissed (and then Kean came in to save them) and Anabel knew that she loved Ash but Ash who had no experience with love was at a loss though he was sure he had a crush on Anabel but he really couldn't tell at this point. One thing they both knew was it would take time to see what would happen between them.

**Elsewhere**

"Welcome back Pride and Lust we saw what happened," said the mysterious cloaked man referring to Mark (Pride) and Pearl (Lust)

"We sir" they both said in unison

"Excellent work now take your seat," he said simply

"Huh?" Mark said confused

"But sir" Pearl said "The doctor is-"

"I know but what does it matter as soon as he gave me the information I needed he was no longer needed," said the man with a cold smile

Pearl and Mark felt their spines freeze from the man's chuckle and took their assigned seats with their codenames on them Greed, Lust, Pride, Envy, Sloth, Gluttony, and Wrath's chair which was empty

"Where is Wrath?" Mark (Pride) asked

"He is on an important mission and will not be back for some time," said Greed whose face was covered in shadows

"Now let's get down to our next mission and our goal shall we?" said the mysterious man

_**Ohhh another mysterious ending. What could this mysterious organization be up to? What are the other member's real names? (And who are they?) And lastly what about Ash and Anabel's new relationship? Well you'll have to read on to find out!**_

_**Remember to leave comments they're my motivation!**_


	7. Chapter 7 A scattered cluster

_**Sorry for the long wait everyone I've been obsessed with reading Reborn chapters online so I've never had the chance to really write anything **_

_Ash was alone he looked around trying to find someone but all he saw was endless darkness. "Come…" said the mysterious voice. "Come to ME!" said the voice as a handmade of shadows grabbed him like he was the size of a doll and dragged him down into darkness_

"Ahh! Wha-" Ash said to himself as he woke up in his bed along with Pikachu who was sleeping next to him by his head like always

"Oh sorry Pikachu it was just a dream. Go back to sleep," said Ash patting the electric mouse on the head

Pikachu was tired but he was worried about its trainer more "Pika kachu Pika pi?"

"No I'm fine really Pikachu go back to bed," said Ash though deep down he had a feeling he wasn't okay not at all

**The Next day **

Ash woke up and went about of his usual morning routine and went to Prof. Oak's lab to go back to training. Now it had been a week since the rescue of him and Anabel. Afterwards Annabel and Greta went back to their frontiers, Brock went back to his gym in Pewter city and Kane and Kean left the hospital in Blackthorn city just yesterday and disappeared. (Lucky for them the debt was paid by Clair and Annabel though mostly Annabel as an apology for the slap that knocked him out cold)

Ash was at a loss concerning his dreams when he was in the cage and slept his nightmares had stopped and after he and Anabel were rescued soon his nightmares returned with a vengeance.

Would being with Annabel stop the nightmares? Ash immediately shook his head in disgust at himself for thinking about that. He liked- no he loved her but he would burn in hell before he used his friends for his own gain

"Okay we've only got a month left until the tournament! So we're going to train like crazy! Ready everyone!" shouted Ash at his entire team who responded with a cheer of approval

**At the battle tower**

Annabel was working ever since she got back from Blackthorn work had been piling up around the tower. However despite all the stress from work she couldn't be happier she finally told Ash how she felt heck she even kissed him twice at that! Anabel shook her head this was no time to fantasize about her new relationship with Ash. What is more Scott might pick her for the 'special project' he had planned for the frontier brains and if that happened then she might not even make it to the tournament at all so she might not see him for some time.

Soon she heard a knock at the door

"Come in," she said as Kane and Kean (along with Kane's Scizor and a Stantler which Anabel could only assume was Kean's) walked in along with a few members of her frontier (along with a small group of their injured pokemon) who apologized to Annabel for not being able to hold them back at the front gate

"It's okay they're friends of mine," said Annabel as the members of the frontier left the room and Kane returned his Scizor to its pokeball but the Stantler remained out

"Would it kill you two to have called so I would let them know?" asked Annabel who quickly added "and is that Stantler yours Kean?"

"Yeah but I'm not sure about having him in my party though since I'm not a normal type pokemon user" said Kean answering before Kane could respond

"Why not?" the salon maiden asked

"Well here is the type of pokemon that I catch, so when you see them you'll understand why I feel uneasy about having him on my team" said Kean as he held up a set of pokeballs

Kane remembered something he forgot to tell Kean before they visited Anabel "Wait! Kean don't-"

But it was too late Kean's dark-type team erupted out of their pokeballs and stood there in the room after a few seconds Anabel finally broke the silence

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed Anabel who stumbled backwards and crawled into a corner with her hands on her head crying as two of her battle frontier workers stepped in and saw Kean's pokemon team and understood the situation

"Recall your pokemon right now!" Kane yelled over Anabel's screaming

Kean recalled his pokemon and Anabel stopped screaming but continued crying

"Can someone tell me what just happe-argh!" asked Kean as Kane punched him in the stomach

"Next time warn someone when you're about to do that" Kane said

"Why what's the problem here?" Kean asked completely lost as to what had just happened

"Anabel is scared to death of dark type pokemon," said Maron the battle salon's referee (and Anabel's right hand man around the place)

"But when we rescued her and Ash she didn't mind Kurogane, Kain, or Kyohei helping out" Kean responded

"I-I've b-been able to be fine with one or two d-d-dark type pokemon at a time but I'm still scared of dark type pokemon," said Anabel trying to regain her composure

"I'm sorry I didn't know," said Kean feeling bad about scaring Anabel like that

"It's okay just give me a minute" Anabel started to calm down after her incident with her phobia while Maron left and came back with a cup of green tea for Anabel

After a quick drink Anabel felt back to normal and spoke up "Okay I'm fine now. So what are you two doing here anyway?"

"We were just leaving Blackthorn when we came across this abandoned and injured Stantler after and we healed it up it stuck to Kean like glue. Then a few minutes after words we got an interesting message and here we are." Kane said

"I named him Kyoraku after captain Kyoraku from Ble-" Kane interrupted "Kean she doesn't understand a word you're saying at this point!"

Anabel had to admit it she had no idea what Kean was going on about (Ash never explained much about Kean except he was an obsessed manga reader who gave all of his pokemon names that began with K and was the name of a character from a manga) and decided to get back to the subject at hand

"What was the message?" Anabel asked

Kean began "We were told that-" and then a new voice interrupted "-a special tournament is being held nearby and we need you and these two to compete in it."

"Scott! Why didn't you tell me you were coming over?" Anabel asked as a portly man wearing shades stepped through the door

"Well considering Noland's been lacking in his work. I decided to go around giving my frontier brains a 'surprise investigation' to see if you're keeping up with their work but I guess I should have known better then to doubt you. So you are needed at that tournament" Scott said

"Well okay but why do you need me to go to the tournament?" asked Anabel (who also left a mental note to herself not to ever shirk work)

"Oh you'll see when we get there," Scott said

As the group left the building Scott had brought his car when all of them were buckled down Anabel whispered to Kean and Kane "Well it's been nice knowing you two,"

"Wait now I rememb-Ayaahhhhh!" yelled Kean as Scott drove off in his car at the usual illegal (and mind scaring) speeds

**Back with Ash**

Ash was on a train with Tucker who had decided to dress 'casual' (which in his case was a purple coat that had shiny gold colored lacing, same colored sweats with small plastic jewelry of different color that if you connected the jewelry with the golden laces they made out the outline of an Articuno, and the same hairstyle as always) so he still attracted a lot of attention from anyone on the train with them

"I still don't understand why you would want to drag me all the way out here for a battle," said Ash

"Well it isn't me to have a battle with no one to watch and I know a place that's like a coliseum tournament and that's just my style for casual battles," said Tucker

"_I should have seen this coming. Oh well at least it will be good training for the tournament" _thought Ash who asked "what's a coliseum tournament?"

"Basically it's when a place called a coliseum receives a large group of trainers and then they battle typical tournament bracket style, but there are a few extra rules in this place," explained Tucker as the train came to a stop and they both got off the train and headed to a coliseum

**Back to Anabel **

Anabel, Kean, and Kane arrived at the town of Topaz Pass; it was a relatively small town that was at the base of a series of mountains in between the Kanto and Johto regions with the coliseum at the heart of town.

"Well here we are so are you guys-" Scott stopped talking and looked at Anabel who had passed out halfway through the drive from the battle tower to Topaz Pass, as Scott looked at the rear view mirror and saw that Kane's face was pale and Kean's was green as he leaned over the side of the car like he was about to puke

"Ohhh and I just got out of the hospital just yesterday," said the queasy dark type trainer

"Oh come on now it wasn't that bad a drive and we got here in only half an hour," said Scott as he tried to wake Anabel up

"YOU JUMPED A CLIFF WITH THIS CAR AT ROCKET SPEED! HOW COULD WE FEEL FINE AFTER THAT!" yelled Kane

"Oh come on I've been on roller coasters that were faster," said Scott as Anabel finally woke up

"Scott back at the tower you said you recently went to everyone else's frontier for the 'surprise investigation' right?" the salon maiden asked

"Yeah" Scott replied

"Let me guess Noland offered to tune up your car in exchange for getting off work right?" Anabel asked

"Uhhhh… no," Scott replied but Anabel could see through his lie

"Yes he did didn't he?" Anabel said

"Yeah" Scott said defeated

"I thought so," Anabel replied as the group finally got out of the car and made their way to the coliseum

**Back to Ash and Tucker**

Ash was in the hallway he wore a Pikachu mask over his face

"Okay I'll bite. Why am I wearing this again?" Ash asked

"That's one of the rules of this coliseum everyone wears a pokemon mask from a member of their pokemon party and when they lose or make it to the top two they take off their mask to reveal to the crowd who had been battling," said Tucker who was wearing a Lapras mask

"Well anything else I should know?" Ash asked getting a little annoyed about doing all of this just for a battle with Tucker

"Yeah, you see for the first few rounds of the tournament it's a tag battle so you and me are going to be partners here until the top eight!" Tucker explained grabbing hold of Ash's arm and pulling him into the coliseum

"_What have I gotten myself into?"_ Ash asked himself as he was dragged into the coliseum where Tucker signed them both up for the tournament

_**And so there's the new chapter (this tournament was originally going to be one chapter only but I decided to go with this anyway)**_

_**And now for one last word from me (which is a quote from Naruto abridged) to describe this chapter (and the next one possibly)**_

'_**Welcome to the wonderful world of filler'**_

_**And remember to leave comments**_


	8. Chapter 8 A happy cluster

_**And here's chapter 8 man I think I've got a bad case of writers block or maybe just laziness but something has been keeping me from updating these chapters quicker then I'd like**_

_**Oh well on with the story**_

**Topaz pass with Anabel's group**

Anabel had just signed up for the tournament according to Scott it would be a tag battle for the first part so she wondered who she would be partnered with. At first she thought she would be partnered with Kean (since Kane is already strong enough to count as two people) but as it turned out Kean and Kane were partners for this half

"So who's my partner for the tournament?" Anabel asked Scott knowing he most likely had a plan for her

"Don't worry she will be here soon," Scott said with an assuring smile

"She?" Anabel said as Scott pointed behind her and he turned around

When Anabel saw who her partner was she smiled "Wow! I'm glad to see you again…"

**Ash's POV**

Ash made his way to the coliseum so far nobody had really put up that difficult of a challenge so Ash and Tucker breezed right through the first two rounds. However, Ash and Tucker found themselves fighting a decent tag team that had one person wearing a Magnamite mask and used a Magnezone in the battle, and a girl who wore a Hitmonlee mask and used a Hitmonlee to battle. It was a tough match but they managed to win when Ash and Pikachu managed to make Hitmonlee use high jump kick on Magnezone and Magnezone used thunderbolt causing the two to attack each other which provided more then enough damage to allow Tucker's Lapras to finish them both off with water pulse.

After the battle the two masked trainers simply left without a word "_something's going on here I know it!" _thought Ash

However he didn't have time to dwell on his thoughts because the second half of the coliseum tournament now aside from Tucker and Ash the six remaining masked people were a Gyradous, an Cleffable, a Scizor, a Stantler, a Venusaur, and a Togetic (though the person wearing that mask used a Togekiss)

"_So my next opponent is… the Cleffable mask," _thought Ash as he went to the battle field ready for this new opponent though like before with the Magnemite and the Hitmonlee mask wearing tag team he had a strong feeling that he knew this person.

**Anabel's POV **

Something weird was going on Anabel knew it and she didn't need her powers to tell her that she felt like someone was pulling some kind of trick on her. Whatever it was she would find out soon

Anabel put on her mask and went to the battle field where her opponent was waiting for her opponent was wearing a Pikachu mask which reminded her of a familiar trainer

"_Ash…_" the salon maiden thought as she sent out her Cleffable ready to battle. Only a few people close to Anabel knew that although Anabel's specialty in pokemon battles was psychic type pokemon she still liked to have a team of any pokemon she could find (save for dark type pokemon)

"Go Pikachu!" said her opponent as a Pikachu appeared from behind the trainer's leg and made its way to the field in a familiar fashion

"_Something seems familiar about this trainer," _thought Anabel as she telepathically ordered her Cleffable to use meteor mash while the opposing trainer ordered the Pikachu to dodge with quick attack and then follow up with an iron tail that really seemed to be a critical hit

"_Oh no use Moonlight!" _Anabel telepathically ordered Clefable as it glowed a silvery color healing itself of most of the injuries it had sustained from the iron tail

"Quick use bolt tackle!" as the Pikachu charged at the still healing Clefable

"_Use Psychic!_" Anabel quickly ordered

As the two attacks collided a huge explosion filled the battle field. The power from the attacks managed to knock both Ash and Anabel's masks off and when the smoke cleared they both saw each other's faces

"Ash?"

"Anabel!"

"Since both trainers' masks have been knocked off this battle is a tie with neither trainer advancing!" announced the referee

"Wait what?" Anabel asked confused by what the referee just said

"What do you mean we're disqualified?" Ash asked the referee

"It's a local rule those who take off their masks before the final battle on the battle field or have their masks knocked off have forfeited the match," said the referee

Defeated the two trainers left the arena and made their way to the lobby where Scott, Tucker, Greta and Noland were waiting for them

"Huh? Scott, Greta, Noland? What are you doing here?" Ash asked

"Tucker! It's good to see you again!" Anabel said to the dome ace

"Wait you knew Scott was here?" Ash asked Anabel

"You knew Tucker was here?" Anabel asked Ash

"And we're here too!" said Kean as he walked into the lobby with an older boy wearing a Scizor mask (who Ash could guess was Kane)

"Kean? I thought your match was going on right now. Did you win?" asked Anabel

"Not even close she creamed me and Kyoraku in two moves!" said Kean

"Well you haven't exactly had a lot of time with him so I'm sure after a little training you'll be able to beat her" said Kane trying to cheer the sulking dark type trainer

"WHO can he beat whom next time?" said a new voice as a woman wearing a Gyradous mask appeared behind Kane and scared the two boys

"Don't show up out of nowhere like that!" yelled Kean

"Okay can someone tell me what's going on?" Ash asked the small group before it got any bigger

Anabel (with interruption from the others) explained that Scott called the frontier brains to this coliseum to battle each other. Why he gave this order they still didn't know.

"Okay and why did Tucker invite me here?" asked Ash

Tucker rubbed the back of his head awkwardly "Uhhh well you see I was told to get you and bring you to the coliseum by Greta and I liked the idea of a rematch with you so…."

Anabel and Ash looked at Greta with an angry look

"Care to explain?" Anabel asked with a very chilling stare

"Oh come on you two are such a cute couple! So after Kean told me about that kiss of yours…" before Greta could continue Ash turned to look at the terrified looking Kean as Ash grabbed the dark type trainer by his neck

"I thought you promised not to tell anyone!" Ash said with a red face as the rest of the group was surprised by the thought of Anabel and Ash together

"Gah! I swear I didn't mean to! There was torture involved it was survival gah!" said Kean as Ash let go of Kean's neck letting him suck in some much needed air

"Torture?" Anabel asked looking at Greta

"Oh relax it was mostly this," Greta said putting Kean in a headlock, choking the poor dark type trainer

"ENOUGH!" yelled Lucy as she grabbed Greta's ear making her let go of Kean and pulled her away from Kean

"Is it because I'm really sturdy that makes everyone think I'm a punching bag?" Kean asked as he stood up

"Yeah sure why not?" Kane said with a shrug

"Yup-Ow!" said Greta as Lucy continued pulling Greta's ear

"That's what I thought," said Kean with a sigh while the group exploded into laughter but soon Kean found himself laughing too

"So Scott can you explain why you brought us all here?" Noland asked after the laughter had died down

"Oh I think I can tell you now since there are only three participants left in the tournament," Scott said with a smile

"What does that have to do with anything?" a confused Tucker asked

"Well for starters the three people left are Kane, Lucy, and Spencer-"

"Huh? Brandon lost?" Lucy asked surprised

"That would be me who did that," said Kane "His Togekiss was recently caught so it wasn't as strong as his other pokemon and as soon as Scizor beat him he left saying something about ruins in the Johto region."

"Yeah that sounds like Brandon alright," said Noland with a sigh as he rubbed the back of his head

"Now that that's out of the way I can tell you why I asked all of you to come to this tournament" said Scott as he cleared his throat and smiled "Lucy and Spencer are now going to be part of the master's tournament!"

The entire room went quiet for a few short seconds and then all hell broke loose

"WHAAAAT!" the whole group yelled in unison

"We were fighting over-if I had known this was what we were doing I would have used my best pokemon!" said Greta as she began to sulk at the news of not competing in the Masters Tournament

"So that's what this was all about," said Spencer as he walked into the room

"Spencer? Where were you?" asked Lucy

"Oh outside just thought I'd get some fresh air when I heard everything Scott said. So me and Lucy are in the masters Tournament… sounds like a nice way to test my skills," said Spencer with a smile

"Just don't expect it to be easy cause I'll be there too!" boasted Kane

"And me too!" said Ash

"I doubt that since I will definitely be the one who will win," said Lucy with a confident smirk

"_It warms my heart to see young folks so energetic," _thought Spencer who immediately said "I'll be looking forward to a match against all of you but there's one thing I must say to you Ash."

"What is it?"

"Make sure you treat such a good girl like Anabel kindly while you two are together!" said the battle palace brain with a chuckle causing both Ash and Anabel's faces to turn a bright red

"Oh yeah I almost forgot about that!" said Kane as he slapped Ash on the back "Nice job man! You got a great girlfriend and she isn't that crazy psychopath!"

"Psychopath?" Ash asked confused

"It's a long story," Kean said as he shook his head as if remembering something that he didn't approve at all

As Ash was getting loads of compliments from the guys Anabel had to deal with the compliments of the girls

"So you finally got your own prince charming for you huh little princess?" said Greta calling Anabel her old nickname that Greta liked to use to describe her

"Greta! Will you please stop calling me that?" Anabel said with a red face from her embarrassing nickname

"Remember to be careful and to never act weak or be too soft towards him," said Lucy with her advice (though to Anabel it sounded more like she was being briefed on a war mission) on being with Ash

"I can't believe that one of our best challengers of my frontier would actually fall for one of my frontier brains! It's amazing!" said Scott as he seemed lost in his own world at the thought of Ash and Anabel together as a couple

As the two new lovers endured the teasing and the praise they sort of were glad that their friends now knew of their relationship but they knew that they were definitely going to be in for changes as time went on. Still they knew that as long as they and their friends were together and they were happy they could live with it.

_**So tell me what you think of this chapter and I've got to know a couple of things so can you answer these questions for me?**_

_**Am I making anyone too out of character?**_

_**Am I improving on my punctuation?**_

_**Did I get any titles wrong? (Both nickname and frontier wise)**_

_**Is my plot any good? (not too similar to other ability shipping stories but still good enough to have a couple of similarities ex. Anabel's fear of dark types or the tournament that will be coming up soon)**_


	9. Chapter 9 a starry night

_**Now let's see if I can keep this series going (Damn things have been crazy lately-pardon my language). I got a new laptop for Christmas so now I should be able to update more freely (hopefully). Now on with Chapter 9 and the last piece of filler before the beginning of the tournament! (trust me though it's pretty important for a filler chapter)**_

**Ash's house**

Ash woke up from his sleep oddly he didn't have another nightmare like he was getting used to. He looked around his room not surprised that Pikachu was still sleeping. Ash looked at the clock which read: 4:50 a.m.

As Ash looked around the room he noticed Anabel sleeping soundly like a princess from a book his mother read him when he was little "_She's so cute,"_ Ash thought as he stood up trying his best to not wake either Pikachu or Anabel.

Ash tipped toed through the living room and made his way to the door slipped on his shoes and walked outside. "_Man so much has happened in the past month,"_ Ash thought as he remembered everything that had happened to him since the incident at Topaz Path.

In such a short time Ash had been training by himself for a while but after a few days Anabel soon arrived at his house to help him with training. So after a long explanation from Ash about his situation with Anabel his mom let her stay with them. During that month of training Ash couldn't remember when training was soo much fun! Anabel helped Ash through so many problems in the past month (from accidents involving swarms of angry Beedrill to personal issues with his team)

Ash walked a short distance to a small grassy hill and looked up at the stars. "_Do I really deserve to be in the tournament?"_ Ash asked himself In this month it felt that Anabel deserved to be in the tournament rather than him.

In the middle of Ash's contemplation he heard a small yawn, he turned around fast and saw Anabel in her purple pajamas as she said "So this is where you decided to run off to," After looking down he noticed she had no shoes on her feet

"Aren't your feet cold?" Ash asked worried she might step on something sharp

"I'm fine but could you tell me why you're here? You know that we have to leave the day after tomorrow," Anabel asked

"Well… I just wanted to clear my head so I decided to come here and… think," Ash said

"Oh so you don't think the rest of the time?" Anabel said teasingly

"Hey!" Ash said in response as Anabel began laughing

"What's so funny?" Ash asked

"Your face looks so funny when you're surprised like that," Anabel said as she continued giggling

"Oh really? Then how about this!" Ash quickly rushed at the still-laughing Anabel and began to tickle the surprised girl as she fell onto the soft grass as Ash continued to tickle her

"H-hey! T-t-that's not fair!" Anabel said as Ash stopped tickling her letting the girl catch her breath

"I don't think I should participate in the tournament," Ash confessed with a serious tone as he sat down on the hill

"What? Why?" Anabel asked surprised as she sat down with him

"I think you deserve to be in the tournament more than me after everything you've done to help me with training everyone," Ash said as he looked down at his feet with his head hung low

"Ash I just pointed some things out YOU are the one that made them so strong to begin with and what's more your team deserves to be in the tournament and after all the hard work they did, you think they deserve to not participate?" Anabel said at the sulking trainer as he slowly turned his head to her and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek

"Thanks Anabel that's all I needed to hear," Ash said as he stood up

Anabel stood up and the two began to walk back to Ash's house.

**Elsewhere**

Two trainers were battling despite how late it was the two were battling like their lives depended on it. Soon the older teen ordered his Scizor to finish the opposing trainer's Drapion with double-hit. The Drapion managed to avoid the first hit but the second one collided into the large poison and dark type's stomach sending the Drapion flying into a nearby tree.

The trainers recalled their pokemon as the trainer wearing the silver jacket with weird looking marks all over it said "No doubt about it Kane your team is ready for the tournament!"

Kane looked pleased at his friend's compliment as he yawned due to lack of sleep "Well let's rest here I'm exhausted," said the steel type trainer as he reached into his backpack and pulled out a sleeping bag

"Huh? Hey wait can't we just go to a pokemon center?" complained the dark-type trainer

"Really? You want to hear Nurse Joy nag to us about being out so late?" Kane asked as he began to slip into his sleeping bag

"Camping it is then!" said Kean not wanting to hear any of Nurse Joy's 'lectures' as he pulled out his own sleeping bag

"_Well at least it's a clear night," _Kean thought as he lied down and let himself be lulled to sleep by the peaceful but to him familiar sounds of the night

**In various towns, cities, and other places**

Vermilion city- a large man was doing pull ups in his gym's training room with his partner pokemon "No matter who is at the tournament, we're gonna crush them! Right Raichu?" asked Lt. Surge

"Rai rai!" shouted the large electric mouse pokemon as they both stopped training and looked out the gym's window and saw the stars

Orange islands- "You ready for this Rudy? This isn't like our challengers or a regular tournament," asked a spiky haired trainer with a pokeball attached to his necklace

"Oh yeah I'm gonna win this tournament and then you and I will be equals!" Rudy declared to the orange crew leader Drake as they both walked back from Drake's coliseum back to Drake's place to rest up for the tournament

Drake smiled as he put his hands in his pockets and looked up at the sky and pulled his right hand out of his pockets and touched the pokeball where his precious partner was currently sleeping and thought "_I know you're ready for this old friend I only hope that I'm ready for this tournament."_

Ecruteak city- Morty the gym leader walked outside and looked up at the starry sky and said to himself "I've been waiting a long time for this,"

The Hoenn region- a silver haired man walked to the top of a hill and looked up at the sky and said "I can't wait to see how much better you've gotten Kane,"

Veilstone city- a pink haired girl and her Lucario were doing some private late night training by sparring with each other outside in her backyard the girl was getting tired so she made the simple mistake of aiming a punch at her partner's head whom easily dodged it and managed to grab her arm and toss her onto her back behind him.

The girl named Maylene took this opportunity to catch her breath and said "That's enough Lucario, lets go get some sleep,"

Lucario nodded as it walked over to its master as she stared at the night sky and he looked up at the sky too it was a magnificent night

Mistralton City- A plane flew high in the sky as the pilot flew as close to the night sky as possible, inside the plane was a red haired girl and outside of the plane flew her partner a large white bird pokemon

"Nothing like flying at night right Swanna?" asked the pilot

"Swaa!" agreed the flying and water type pokemon

"Yeah!" shouted the pilot named Skyla normally she would have gone into a heart skipping nose dive due to her excitement but when she poped out from behind a cloud and saw the starry sky she decided not to. "_It's a REALLY nice night to be flying," _Skyla thought as she continued flying through the starry sky

_**So what do you think of my little filler chapter? I suppose a little spoiler for who's going to be in the tournament and a little ability shipping moment at the beginning was worth the filler right?**_

_**Also no one answered my questions from my last chapter so here they are again:**_

_**Am I making anyone too out of character?**_

_**Am I improving on my punctuation?**_

_**Did I get any titles wrong? (Both nickname and frontier wise)**_

_**Is my plot any good? (not too similar to other ability shipping stories but still good enough to have a couple of similarities ex. Anabel's fear of dark types or the tournament that will be coming up soon)**_


	10. Chapter 10 Happiness and grief

_**So here's Chapter 10 enjoy**_

Ash looked out of the train's window. It had been a long eight hour wait on the train to get to the location of the master's tournament. According to the invitation it was a large area north of a region called Orre. Ash wondered what the Orre region was like as the train continued on its way.

During his thoughts he looked at the seat next to him where Anabel had fallen asleep on his shoulder along with Pikachu who had decided to fall asleep on her lap.

"_She's so cute when she sleeps" _Ash thought as an announcement was heard over the train

"Next stop for all you future pokemon masters and all you spectators the Minera region is our next stop! So be prepared to take all of your luggage and be ready to depart in five minutes," said the voice over the train's radio.

When Ash heard the announcement a huge grin appeared on his face though part of him felt bad for waking Anabel from her sleep.

"Huh? What happened?" Anabel said sleepily as she woke up from her sleep

"Our stop is up next. Come on let's get our stuff," Ash explained as they reached for their luggage in the compartment above them. When Ash brought down the last of his and Anabel's luggage he saw a familiar face wrapped in green with a large hat

"Huh? Hey Nando is that you?" Ash said walking through the crowd of people where he found the familiar green clothed bard.

"Ash my friend! It is good to see you again!" said Nando as he strummed his lyre that was shaped like the legendary pokemon Mew

"It's good to see you too Nando. Are you in the tournament?" Ash asked

"Sadly my friend no I am not. I am only here to witness who will win this battle but with you here perhaps we too can battle each other," Nando suggested

"Sure that would be great!" Ash said excitedly as Anabel made her way through the crowd to where she found Ash talking with Nando

"Huh? Ash who is this?" Anabel asked

"Oh Anabel this is Nando he's a friend of mine that I met in the Sinnoh region," Ash explained

"I am honored to meet you," Nando said with a slight bow

Anabel giggled a little at the man who acted so formal like someone from a fairytale "I'm happy to meet you too."

Suddenly the train came to a stop and Ash noticed that most if not all of the people in their compartment were leaving

"Oh no, Anabel we better go back and get our luggage before we lose it!" Ash said

"Don't worry, I left Espeon and Pikachu back to guard our stuff," said Anabel

"Oh good! For a minute I was worried we were gonna lose our stuff," Ash said with a sigh of relief

"Oh don't worry, unlike you I would never lose our stuff," Anabel said teasingly

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ash asked as Anabel began giggling along with a small laugh from Nando

"Oh thanks a lot!" Ash said as the two continued laughing but soon Ash couldn't help but laugh at himself as well

After a few minutes the three of them grabbed their stuff and made their way off the train and towards the stadium where the tournament was going to be held.

Ash and company made their way to one of the many hotels that were allowing all competitors to reside there for free until the tournament came to an end. After an hour or so of getting their room (Ash insisted that the two of letting them stay with him) Ash, Anabel and Nando decided to get some lunch as they left the hotel and looked for a place to eat.

As Ash explained to Nando about his and Anabel's current relationship Nando smiled more and more as the walk continued causing Anabel to blush a little considering Ash talked about their relationship like it was so easy to talk about.

When the three friends were done eating and heading back to their hotel ash heard a familiar voice behind him as a large muscular hand grabbed hold of his shoulder as the voice said "Well I'll be fried! Ash it's been a while!"

Ash turned around to see an extremely tall muscular man wearing an army clothes including combat boots, an army jacket, and army colored pants and spiky yellow hair. Standing next to him was a very familiar looking Raichu

"Surge! You're here too?" Ash said shocked **(A/N: sorry couldn't resist the pun)**

"Yeah I'm the one who's gonna win it all! And with you here that will be plain to see when I beat you!" said the electric-type gym leader with a confident grin as he looked around to see ash's two companions but his eyes stopped almost immediately when he saw Anabel "Well this is a surprise! Anabel it has been a long time!"

"Huh? You know each other?" Ash said confused

"Well he was the first gym leader I challenged and-"

"Challenged? Hahaha! More like slaughtered! She beat my Voltorb, Magnemite and even my Electabuzz using only her Eevee!" Lt. Surge said with a chuckle

"Well Eevee did evolve into Espeon when she was battling Electabuzz so it was just dumb luck," Anabel said modestly

"Dumb luck nothing! You won fair and square and ever since I decided that evolved pokemon are always better and then this guy came along and showed me otherwise," Lt. Surge said as he slapped Ash on the back nearly sending the young pokemon trainer flying forward

"You challenged Surge too?" Anabel questioned

Ash rubbed the back of his head awkwardly "Well… yeah but I-"

"-lost miserably and then beat him the second time by a hair," said a familiar voice as the group noticed a certain red haired girl walking towards them along with a small group of familiar faces from Ash's days in Kanto

"Misty! Brock! Blaine!" Ash said shocked

"Quite an interesting group of friends you have Ash," said Nando as he strummed his lyre

"So this is where you ran off to Surge," Brock said as he waved at the group and said "Ash, Anabel, Nando! Good to see you guys again!"

After a few hours of reminiscing on all sorts of experiences from Ash's battles in Kanto to Brock and Ash meeting Anabel and Nando as well as all sorts of experiences between gym leaders discussed in between, the group decided to head back to their respective hotel rooms. After saying good night to everyone they all walked back to their rooms on the way Ash said "You know I thought for sure we'd see Kane and Kean here,"

"More friends of yours?" Nando asked as Ash and Anabel nodded explaining the part time swordsman/steel type trainer and the sturdy dark type trainer until they finally got back to their hotel and said goodnight to each other as they disappeared into their respective rooms.

**Elsewhere **

"Do you have any idea how long me and everyone spent looking for you? You could have told me where you were going before you left!" shouted Kean to Kane as he walked hand in hand with none other than his beloved Erika the grass type Kanto gym leader.

"Well when I heard that Erika was nearby all I can think about is her!" Kane replied with a grin as Erika began to blush (luckily only Kane could see it due to the darkness of the night)

Kean sighed as he rubbed the back of his head "Well you should count yourself lucky that the sign up ends tomorrow afternoon or you'd never compete in the tournament,"

"As long as I can see Erika I don't care,"

"Kane!" yelled Erika embarrassed by Kane's lovey-dovey words

As the two continued their walk while Kean stayed a few steps behind them Kean had a small but dark thought in his head "_Idiots, don't they know that some things are more important than love?"_

As the group approached the town Kean looked up at the stars and remembered why he had begun following Kane since so long ago. And when he was sure they were out of range he let a small tear fall to the ground as he thought "_Damn It, DAMN IT!"_

The boy wiped his tear aside and ran after them making sure to show no sign of what had happened and the pain in his heart that made him hate love in the first place.

_**Whoa pretty dark ending huh? Well make sure to leave your comments and tell me what you think!**_


	11. Chapter 11 It begins! Cat vs Mouse

_**And now chapter 11 enjoy! Also according to a certain review Kean sounded a little Homo towards Kane. Yeah sorry if anything like that went through your heads (especially you AbilityKing since Kane is partially a victim of my mistake here.)I intended to have Kean being upset about his past not Erika dating Kane (just to be perfectly clear). Well now that that's out of the way… on with the chapter!**_

Ash stood in line with Anabel as she continued to explain the basic rules of the tournament. Ash learned that the first round was a one on one pokemon battle where even one loss meant he was out of the tournament Ash understood that easily but what he didn't know was how many trainers were at this tournament and according to Annabel approximately two-hundred ordinary participants, all of which had (at the very least) had come in the top eight of any official pokemon league tournament once, where competing in the first battle of the tournament where one loss here mean disqualification made him nearly fall over.

This was going to be more of a challenge then he expected but he wouldn't stop now he and his team had come too far to give up now and if he gave up now he'd be disappointing Anabel of all people and after everything she had gone through she didn't deserve to be disappointed.

Soon Ash's turn to learn of his opponent came and the screen showed a picture of Ash and his opponent, she appeared to be an older woman in her early twenties and her name was Kitty Parks from Jubilife City?

"_That's a strange name," _thought Ash as he was told the location of his one on one battle he and Anabel made their way out of the building

"So what's your opponent's name?" Anabel asked Ash

"Well… I got one with a kind of strange name," Ash admitted sheepishly

"Really? Well don't tell them that, they might be offended," Anabel said as Ash chuckled at the obvious statement

"Her name is Kitty Parks," said Ash as Anabel chuckled at the funny name

"Maybe she uses cat pokemon?" Anabel said as she jokingly nudged Ash in the side as they walked towards Ash's assigned battlefield

**Ash's match**

Ash stood in the green corner of the battlefield; it had a reinforced steel fence with bullet proof glass that helped keep any stray attacks from harming the onlookers that swarmed the battlefield in an attempt to see how the match would turn out or the local press wanting to catch a few pictures of anyone who might make it to the finals.

Ash knew that his opponent was tough with the way she glared at him with her emerald green eyes, like a beast ready to pounce on its helpless prey. However unlike 'helpless prey' Ash was not going to stand by and let himself be caught off guard. Pikachu jumped down from ash's shoulder as sparks danced across the electric mouse's cheeks in determination.

"This is the first round match of the Master's Tournament! In the blue corner Kitty Parks of Jubilife City will be battling Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town in the green corner. Are both sides ready?" asked the referee as the two challengers nodded the referee shouted "Ready? Begin!"

"Go Nana!" yelled Kitty as a Purugly erupted out of its pokeball. Like its trainer the Purugly had eyes that burned with determination but had a playful spark in their midst.

At the sight of the Purugly Ash looked at Anabel from the sides who returned Ash's surprised and dumbfounded look at their jokes earlier.

Ash shook off the odd feeling and was about to grab a pokeball from his waist but he felt a tugging at his pants leg where Pikachu had a determined look on its face that showed it wanted to fight, "Ready to go Pikachu? Well okay! Pikachu I choose you!"

Pikachu darted out onto the field ready to fight as Kitty said "You didn't name your Pikachu? That's a shame," said Kitty with a sigh

"Huh?" Ash questioned "What are you talking about?"

"It just seems a shame to give your Pikachu a cute name to go with its cuteness!" said Kitty with a sense of flamboyance

"Uhh… Pikachu just likes being called 'Pikachu' so I call him that," Ash said plainly not liking the idea of giving Pikachu a name that had to be cute simply because of him being 'cute' as Kitty had said earlier.

"Well anyway, let's finish this quickly Nana! Iron tail!" ordered Kitty as the Purugly darted towards Pikachu with incredible speed, despite its great size, and brought a swift turn to its side as its tail lashed out towards Pikachu who managed to just barely avoid the worst of it but still suffered a small amount of damage from the attack.

"Pikachu use iron tail!" yelled Ash as Pikachu's tail also glowed a steel gray color and swung it at the Purugly managing to slam straight at it side sending it sliding back a few feet but still ready for more.

"_He had Pikachu let Purugly come to him and then used Pikachu's superior speed to land a more solid blow onto Purugly," _thought Anabel with a smile

She could tell with that quick on his feet move that Ash was back on his feet and she knew he was ready forthis tournament and all of the challenges in it as Pikachu charged at Purugly with Bolt Tackle while Kitty ordered Nana to use Hyper Beam to counter it.

An explosion ensued and smoke filled the battlefield where Nana and Pikachu stood covered in injuries but still ready for more like their trainers.

On the sidelines Anabel watched Pikachu dart around the battlefield dodging powerful attacks and trying to land a blow on the Purugly but like Pikachu Nana had managed to avoid just as many attacks as Pikachu.

"Whoa they're really going at it are they?" said a familiar voice right behind Anabel causing the young salon maiden to nearly jump out of her shoes in surprise

"K-Kane don't scare me like that!" Anabel said as the swordsman took a step backwards with his hands up in defense, "Sorry about that, anyway this should be an interesting match considering Ash and that girl's history."

"History? Do you know this girl?" Anabel asked

"No actually-"

"-Both Ash and Kitty's tournament history is over there," said Erika pointing at a pedestal that had a large screen attached to it.

"Hey, I wanted to say that," Kane said in a mock complaining voice as Erika giggled teasingly

Anabel ran over to the pedestal and saw Ash's history describing Ash's current rankings in tournaments from the Indigo Plateau to the Unova league and every other tournament in between such as the Orange islands and the contests that Ash had occasionally participated in. Anabel then looked at Kitty's history and was surprised her record was remarkably similar to Ash's (tournament wise anyway). Kitty had apparently participated in five tournaments and three grand festivals, she didn't win any of them but she did come in top four in all the contests while tournament wise she was virtually the same as Ash's own record, at first she appeared in top sixteen in her first two challenges but her third try led her to top eight and then top four for her last two challenges a lot like Ash.

"_Wow, this really is going to be an interesting match,"_ thought Anabel as she walked back to where Kane and Erika were still watching the battle as it went on.

Back with Ash he had to admit Kitty was very good despite Nana's bulky body it was a very well-trained Purugly strong and steady with great reflexes and very accurate attacks, just what Ash secretly wanted in this tournament.

"All right Pikachu let's finish this with one more Bolt Tackle!" yelled Ash as Pikachu darted towards Purugly with incredible speed as electricity completely covered Pikachu's body

"Nana use Hyper beam at maximum power!" ordered Kitty as another powerful orb of destructive energy formed in between Nana's ears on her crescent shaped head and fire the beam at Pikachu as it collided causing another (but louder) explosion that filled the area with smoke once again.

"He shouldn't have attacked head on," said a young voice as Anabel, Kane and Erika turned to see Max and his older sister May along with Brock

"Brock! May and Max?" Anabel asked glad to see Ash's traveling companions together again

Kane on the other hand was introducing Erika to all of Ash's other companions (besides Brock since they already met)

"Anyway that Purugly's hyper beam was strong I doubt that a head on attack even from Pikachu would-" before Max could finish his sentence the smoke finally cleared and there was Nana lying down defeated as an exhausted Pikachu stood in front of her gasping for breath.

"Purugly is unable to battle! Therefore victory goes to Ash Ketchum of Pallet town!" declared the referee

"We did it!" Ash yelled with a jump

"Pipi kachu," said Pikachu weakly as he fell down exhausted

"Pikachu!" Ash then ran out onto the field and picked up Pikachu "You okay buddy?"

Pikachu smiled and fell asleep exhausted from the battle as Kitty walked over to Ash after returning Nana to her pokeball, "Will your Pikachu be all right?"

"Yeah, I think so," said Ash as he looked up at Kitty with a smile as she extended her hand which he took as they shook hands

"That's Ash for you," said Brock with a smile as everyone else nodded respecting the trainer's sportsmanship when it came to pokemon and their trainers

"And here you said he'd lose," May said to her little brother

"I didn't say he'd lose!" Max shot back

"Oh, yes you did!"

As the two siblings continued arguing Ash walked out of the arena with an injured but more exhausted then hurt Pikachu in his arms. "Huh? Guys you're here too?"

As everyone tried to catch up with each other Pikachu let out a weak "Pi pi ka,"

"Oh right, sorry guys I need to get Pikachu to a pokemon center!" said Ash as he took off before any of them could respond

"Hehehe, yeah that's Ash all right," said Brock as everyone laughed in agreement until Anabel finally spoke up "Hey where's Kean?"

"Oh he said he was going to spend the day training Kyoraku or something," Kane answered

"Come to think of it he left pretty early too. I wonder what got him so determined all of a sudden?" questioned Erika as Kane shrugged and said "Maybe the tournament has gotten to him."

**In the forest outside of the tournament area**

Kean sneezed and said "_Is someone talking behind my back… again?" _thought the otaku trainer, "_Oh well that's not important now."_

During Kean's training Kyoraku and Kurogane had definitely improved during their training. Although Kurogane was still a ways off from evolving into Bisharp he was still doing well in his battle against Kyoraku who was still ready for more.

"_Kyoraku's stamina is impressive he'll be a great addition to my team. Especially when I find… him!" _thought Kean as anger made him shake until he shook himself out of it and went back to supervising his pokemon's training.

**Back to Anabel's group**

Anabel and the gang had followed Ash to an extremely large pokemon center that was roughly the size of an airport. As expected the center was overflowing with Nurse Joys causing Brock to flirt like crazy with them (until a two against one attack from Max and Croagunk hauled him away from them).

Anabel spotted Ash (without Pikachu whom she could only assume meant Nurse Joy had already taken him in for healing) along with Lt. Surge, who was currently occupied with shouting at a very timid looking Nurse Joy.

"What do you MEAN his Pikachu won't be able to battle tomorrow?" shouted the electric type gym leader

"J-just t-t-that Pikachu has a bad leg and will need a few days t-t-to heal," she answered while shaking like a leaf

Ash seemed to be trying to calm Surge down, even though he wasn't helping the situation at all, but was also trying to press the same Nurse Joy to know how Pikachu would be for the rest of the tournament.

After doing their best to calm Surge down and get him away from the terrified Nurse Joy (whom Brock later failed to flirt with) they all sat down at a table to talk.

Ash began "According to Nurse Joy Pikachu won't be able to compete for a few days-"

"-And tomorrow is the day when the gym leaders and everyone else are allowed to compete in the tournament. What's more we gym leaders get the privilege of getting to pick one of the remaining challengers to compete against for our first challenge and I choose to battle Ash as my first opponent." Finished Surge with a grunt of disapproval.

"Okay and the problem is?" asked Max as he hid behind his sister who hid behind Brock at the sight of the large and angry gym leader.

"Wait the gym leaders get to compete now?" questioned Kane "Why not have all of them compete at the beginning like everyone else?"

Lt. Surge looked at Kane and gave a smirk "Determined aren't ya? The reason is so that the gym leaders can show their true abilities in battle by fighting the toughest trainers not just battling everyone they see. However this would cause some of the trainers here to get cocky and not fight at their best like this tournament is supposed to be all about."

Anabel thought for a moment and then spoke "I see and from the looks of this the two hundred divided in half plus two gym leaders, an elite four and a champion from each of the five regions-

"-And including the four frontier brains two from Kanto and two from Johto and a member and the leader of the orange crew along with two masters makes a total of one-hundred and twenty-eight competitors for the REAL part of the tournament." Said a new voice as the group turned around to see the leader of the orange crew himself, Drake.

"Drake! You're here too?" Ash said as the two high-fived

"Long time no see Ash," said Drake as he looked at the large group and said "Well looks like you've got a lot of friends cheering you on or are they competing too?"

As the group introduced themselves Drake explained that once the first battle was just a way to bring out the best trainers and now they would have to battle a large assortment of trainers on a total of five different fields before competing in the finals where the winner would be given the title of 'Pokemon Master'.

Ash listened to every word the orange crew leader spoke and he began to shake not from fear but pure excitement. This was going to be a VERY interesting tournament indeed.

**Later **

Ash and Lt. Surge made their way to the table for their registered battlefield, according to Drake there were five battlefields in total and all challengers had to battle on all five before making their way to the finals.

"Ahh good the both of you are here," said the receptionist as a large screen appeared behind her, "Now your battle will be tomorrow at two-thirty and we will decide your battle field right now."

At this the screen lit up revealing five symbols with five different colors; one was blue with a black water drop insignia on it that represented a water battlefield, another was green with a black leaf insignia on it that represented a grass field, another was brown with a black rock insignia on it that represented a rocky battlefield, another was white with a black snowflake insignia on it that represented an ice field, and the last one was gray with a black feather insignia on it that represented a sky field.

Soon an arrow appeared in the middle of the screen and began spinning clockwise around until it began to slow down

At this the receptionist said "And your battlefield tomorrow will be…"

**Another suspenseful ending I wonder what Ash and Surge's battlefield will be tomorrow? So with that being said what do you guys think? Now that the small stuff is over the big boys are coming out to play. To those of you don't understand why the total number of current competitors is important listen to the math…**

**128 remaining competitors will become 64 competitors and that will become 32 and so on until the final 2. (trust me that took a lot of thinking which confused me to no end-I suck at math)**


	12. Chapter 12 Ash vs Lt Surge

**Now for chapter 12! And with Ash vs. Surge but on what field? Well we'll soon find out!**

**In the water stadium**

Ash walked towards the light where the sounds of hundreds if not thousands of cheering people were waiting for Ash's battle against Surge. When Ash found out what field he was on he was slightly joyed at not being placed on the sky field seeing as he never saw a sky field in a tournament before but to be given the water field when he knew surge was an electric type gym leader this would be a tough challenge for him in more ways than one.

For starters the two types of pokemon that he could use that would be able to use the field to its fullest (flying and water types) would have a disadvantage against Surge's electric types. What's more the only pokemon Ash had ever seen Surge use was his Raichu so since this was a three on three match he would have to fight against two other pokemon he never saw before.

Despite all this Ash was still determined to win and the pokemon he chose for this battle were, in his opinion, just the pokemon for the job.

Ash walked out and took a good look at battlefield; it was an Olympic sized pool that was approximately eight feet deep with a total of nine platforms allowing non-swimming pokemon a place to stand on with eight moderately sized platforms placed around a larger platform in the center of the pool and the smaller ones surrounding it making it shaped like a giant octagon.

And of course standing on the far side of the pool was Surge himself as the areas both Ash and Surge were standing on rose up giving them a better view of the field.

Once the platforms stopped rising the referee spoke "This will be a three on three match between the gym leader Lt. Surge of Veilstone city against Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town!" this speech caused the stadium to erupt into a roar of applause and cheers (most for Surge but a few seemed to cheer for Ash as well) "Are the challengers ready? Begin!"

"I'll start off with my newest soldier! Galvantula!" shouted Lt. Surge as the elec-bug type appeared out of its pokeball and hopped onto the middle platform with a screech

"_Whoa! Didn't expect Surge to have any Unova pokemon but oh well!" _thought Ash as he tossed a pokeball and shouted "Come on out Sceptile!"

As the Forest pokemon emerged from its pokeball on the platform closest to Ash, it put its signature twig in its mouth and gave a smirk of determination.

Elsewhere in the stadium Anabel along with Brock, May and Max sat observing the battle.

"Good idea starting off with Sceptile electric attacks don't do much damage on grass types and what's more it's speed and agile movements can be very helpful on this field," said Anabel with a nod

"But Galvantula is also a bug type, which have an advantage over grass types," stated Max

"Right but Ash has done these kind of things before and he always knew how to use his pokemon to their fullest potential," said Brock as the battle began

"Galvantula use electro ball!" shouted Surge as a ball of crackling electricity formed in between its pincers and shot towards Sceptile

"Sceptile dodge!" shouted Ash as Sceptile jumped with incredible agility to another platform before the attack could reach its mark

"_Great now let's begin the real attack," _thought Surge as he shouted "Galvantula use electro web!" At this Galvantula spat out a web that was covered with electricity which Sceptile dodged as easily as the electro ball but made contact with the platform and wrapped around it, "Keep it up Galvantula!"

As the attacks continued Ash realized what surge was doing after the fifth electro web in a row which made contact with another platform Sceptile had previously jumped to. "Sceptile get on the middle platform!"

Sceptile obeyed and was now left on the same platform with Galvantula "_Not bad Surge you wanted to limit my movement on the platforms by covering them in that web!_"

"All right Galvantula Bug Buzz!" yelled surge as Galvantula emitted a horrible sound that struck Sceptile hard causing it to collapse on one knee

"Sceptile bullet seed!" At this Sceptile spat out a projectile of seeds at Galvantula causing it to cease its attack until Surge yelled, "Use electro web and jump on Sceptile!"

Ash countered the incoming web by ordering Sceptile to use leaf blade but unfortunately Galvantula had accomplished its mission of attaching itself to Sceptile's back "Now use bug buzz!"

As the sound filled the stadium Ash thought of what to do as Sceptile tried shaking Galvantula off its back. Ash then shouted "Sceptile jump up on the left platform!"

This earned a lot of shocked faces from the crowd as Sceptile jumped towards one of the platforms that was covered with the electro web and at the last possible second Ash yelled out "Now land on your back!"

At this Sceptile switched position in mid-air as it collided on top of the web with Galvantula being the victim of not only the pain from the impact but also from the electricity of the electro web. "Now step on Galvantula and jump over to the middle platform and finish it off with bullet seed!"

Sceptile obeyed as it changed its body position to have it standing on Galvantula's stomach and then jumped off over to the middle platform and shot another volley of seeds at Galvantula causing an explosion. When the smoke cleared Galvantula was seen lying on its back knocked out and the web on the platform destroyed.

As Surge called back Galvantula Ash looked around and realized that the other four webs were still there cutting off more much needed room on this field and what's more Sceptile looked exhausted from the previous fight.

"Not bad Ash, but I'm not done yet!" yelled Surge as he threw another pokeball which opened up to reveal the water and electric type Lanturn which fell into the water and out of sight

"_Awww crap! He's got a Lanturn too?"_ thought Ash

"This is bad" said Brock

"Yeah, Lanturn can use the whole pool and what's more surge must be pretty confident if he's using a water type against Sceptile. Especially after that fight with Galvantula," said Anabel

"All right fill this field with a thunderbolt!" shouted Surge as the orb on Lanturn's head began to glow until the entire pool was filled with electricity.

Sceptile stood in the middle of the platform avoiding most of the electricity but a few sparks of electricity managed to dance across the platforms including the one Sceptile stood on. Sceptile flinched in pain as the small jolts of electricity made contact with him and Ash couldn't see where Lanturn was due to the light the electricity gave off.

"Now hydro pump!" shouted Surge as Lanturn appeared behind Sceptile unaffected by the electricity in the pool and shot a strong blast of water at Sceptile causing it to fall into the pool and collide with the wall around the pool as it began to float until Lt. Surge ordered Lanturn to use thunderbolt while underwater leaving Sceptile completely knocked out.

Ash recalled Sceptile and thought "_Hmmmm… Surge is probably gonna use Raichu next so I guess I should save him for later and use…"_

"Swellow! I choose you!" shouted Ash as the flying pokemon appeared with a screech as the entire crowd stared confused at Ash's choice of pokemon

"Swellow! Why would he-? Wait is he going to try using the electricity as armor again?" questioned Max

Anabeljust stared at Max like he grew a second head "What? Ash had Swellow do what?"

Brock said "I'll tell you later but first I think Ash plans to have Swellow use the field to his advantage just like Surge's Lanturn not to mention the fact that Lanturn seemed to super charge the remaining electro webs so he can't use one of his land dwelling pokemon. What's more Ash knows Swellow is probably the most enduring of all his bird pokemon."

"Yeah, that sounds like Ash all right," said Anabel with a nod

"Interesting choice but that won't help you here! Lanturn light em up with a thunderbolt!" shouted Surge

Lanturn hopped out of the pool and shot a powerful bolt of electricity at Swellow until Ash shouted "Swellow dodge and use aerial ace!"

At this Swellow avoided the attack by an inch and dashed towards Lanturn at incredible speeds ramming the electric-water type causing it to fall into the pool but still ready for more as it began swimming around awaiting orders. Ash ordered swallow to fly up high into the sky just out of range of Lanturn's electric attacks.

For a few moments the pokemon merely floated around the field as the two trainers pondered their best options on what to do. At this May spoke up "You know the more I think about it Surge and Ash are acting a lot like generals in a war movie,"

"Yeah you're right," Brock said as he looked at the field more closely and said with a chuckle "A naval fleet of one Lanturn vs. an air raid fleet of one Swellow."

"Swellow dive down to the pool and use hyper beam when you see Lanturn's shadow!" shouted Ash as the flying type did just that

"Lanturn zap em with thunderbolt!" shouted Surge as Swellow's nose dive came to an end and darted towards the electric-water type that jumped out of the pool and zapped Swellow as the orange ball of energy reached the peak of its power. Swellow took the attack head on and still flew fast towards Lanturn and released the blast which collided with Lanturn and an explosion was heard as smoke filled the arena.

Swellow emerged and surprisingly still ready for more whereas Lanturn on the other hand was seen lying on its side in the pool knocked out cold.

Surge recalled Lanturn as the crowd roared with approval of the battle and when it died down just enough Surge shouted above the remaining roar of the crowd while he held up a pokeball "Impressive Ash but now I'm gonna show you true strength with this!"

When Surge threw the pokeball Ash thought for sure that Raichu would appear but instead a large yellow and black stripped pokemon with two tails appeared… an Electivire.

"Whoa, an Electivire," Ash said as he thought "_I gotta make sure Swellow gets at least one attack on it before it attacks."_

"Swellow aerial ace!" shouted Ash as Swellow darted towards Electivire but shockingly Surge didn't even look worried which made Ash _very_ worried but before he could say anything Electivire actually grabbed Swellow by the beak with one hand and grabbed hold of Swellow's neck with the other and held on tightly to the screeching bird pokemon

"Thunder punch," ordered Surge as Electivire's fist exploded with a maelstrom of electricity around its fist, let go of Swellow's neck and delivered a powerful punch to Swellow's stomach sending it flying all the way across the pool to the wall that surrounded the pool and fell down with a weak grunt.

"Swellow!" yelled Ash as he looked at the knocked out bird pokemon that still had electricity dancing all over it until Ash finally recalled Swellow.

"All right Surge I see how this has gotta end so… let's see how you do against THIS!" shouted Ash as he tossed another pokeball which opened up to reveal a large frog like pokemon Seismitoad

Surge grinned "I thought you'd try something like this and trust me I'm prepared for pokemon like this!"

"Good I'd hate to beat you too easily!" Ash shot back

Up in the stadium the others were in a heated discussion of Ash's last choice pokemon

"I don't get it why didn't Ash use Seismitoad earlier? He wouldn't have to worry about the electro webs and he could have went head to head with Lanturn," questioned May

"I think maybe since Ash knew that surge would save his strongest for last and since Surge uses electric types it would be best to save a ground type for last and with Seismitoad being both a ground and water type he can use the whole field to his advantage," stated Anabel

"Ash was really using his head for this one," Max stated as Brock nodded in agreement

"All right Seismitoad use mud shot!" Ash ordered as the Vibration pokemon opened its mouth and shot out a volley of mud balls at Electivire

"Dodge it and jump on the left platform!" ordered Surge as Electivire obeyed landing on a platform that had an electro web on it shocking Electivire

Ash blinked in confusion "_Why would Surge-? Of course! He's using-!" _

"Electivire use focus blast!" Surge shouted as a sphere of energy appeared in Electivire's hands and flung it at Seismitoad which collided directly with the vibration pokemon sending it falling backwards into the pool.

"Seismitoad!" shouted Ash but Ash's worries were over when Seismitoad poked its head out of the water still ready to fight.

"Now use ice punch on Seismitoad while it's still in the pool!" Surge ordered as Electivire dashed forward towards Seismitoad but luckily Ash managed to get Seismitoad to dodge the attack by diving underwater but the ice punch caused the water around the platform to freeze.

"I get it! All this time those webs were Surge's real plan!" Brock stated "He used the webs there to limit Ash's movements but when he had Lanturn super charge the webs and used Elec-"

"-Electivire's motor drive negated the damage and made it faster making it even more of a threat than any of Surge's other pokemon," finished Anabel

"Whoa looks like Surge really thought this match through," Max said

"I wonder what Ash is gonna do now?" May questioned

Ash looked around the pool as Seismitoad appeared out of the pool and jumped onto one of the web-less platforms seemingly unharmed from the effects of the ice punch.

"Okay Seismitoad use muddy water on the pool!" shouted Ash

Seismitoad obeyed as it opened its mouth and spat out a large jet of mucky water which when it collided into the pool caused a huge wave which completely swept Electivire and the remaining electro webs off their platforms and when the water calmed down the entire pool had become a pool of murky water. After a few seconds Electivire emerged from the dirty water dripping with liquidated mud.

"_Not bad Ash_," thought Surge as he then shouted "Electivire focus blast again!"

As Electivire began preparing its attack Ash yelled "Seismitoad use hyper voice!"

Seismitoad opened its mouth and a large sonic sound was heard as Electivire was thrown back into the water by the attack but had managed to release the orb of energy which collided with Seismitoad causing an explosion. The two trainers called out their pokemon's names as Electivire emerged from the water and Seismitoad was seen standing but breathing heavily from the attack.

"Let's end this Ash!" shouted Lt. Surge "Electivire ice punch at max power!"

"I couldn't agree more! Seismitoad drain punch!" Ash shouted back

The two pokemon rushed at each other with their fists pulled back, Electivire's covered in a freezing fist and Seismitoad's radiating an energy sucking power, and made contact with each other. Electivire's fist caused Seismitoad's body to be covered in chunks of ice while Electivire received a punch in the face that seemed to have healed Seismitoad but was it enough?

After a few moments Electivire twitched and tried to stay standing as it wobbled back and forth while Seismitoad began to shiver from the ice but could manage to stand and after a few seconds Electivire fell down defeated.

It took Ash a few minutes to realize what had happened and when he did he yelled out in joy and jumped down from his platform and hugged the Vibration pokemon as the crowd went wild.

"Ash finally did it," Brock said

"Did what?" asked May

"He settled the score between him and Surge," answered Brock who began clapping along with the crowd

Surge recalled Electivire and waited as the platform began to descend on its own and made his way to Ash "Great job Ash glad to see that you still got that power behind you."

"Yeah but it was Seismitoad who really did all the work." Answered Ash

"And you're the one who brought out that power in him that's what trainers do when they battle," replied Surge as he held out his hand which Ash took and they shook hands

Afterwards Ash made his way to the lobby where Anabel, Brock, May and Max were waiting for him, "Hey guys."

"Great battle Ash," said Brock

"Yeah it was awesome!" stated Max energetically

As the friends continued chatting about Ash's battle Ash soon saw a face that made him stop stone cold and shiver at this Anabel asked, "Ash? What's wrong?"

"T-T-Tobias is here. Tobias is in the tournament," Ash finally managed to say as Brock and him shared a nervous gesture and they both knew that this tournament just got a lot more challenging.

**And so Ash's strongest rival has finally appeared in this tournament. How will Ash manage to cope with this new knowledge and who will Ash's next opponent be? Well we'll find out later. (Did I sound like the narrator for DBZ when I said that?)**

**Also I just realized this is the first chapter without Kean or Kane in it weird huh?**


	13. Chapter 13 Steel vs Jewelry?

**In the hallway of the Rock Stadium**

Kane stood in the hallway with Erika a few minutes before his match was about to start.

"Good luck Kane," Erika said with a smile

"Don't worry I'll beat this one in... five minutes, maybe? Then I'll get back to you," He said kissing Erika on the tip of her nose causing her to giggle before she waved good bye to take her place in the stands with the others.

**Later**

Erika sat down in a seat next to Anabel who was more concerned about the frightened Ash who sat to her right. In the rows behind them sat Brock, May and Max.

"So… is he ready for this?" May asked the Grass-type gym leader

Erika nodded and said, "Yes, Kane can handle himself but I wonder… where is Kean? I thought he said that he would be here to watch Kane's match."

"Now that you mention it I haven't seen him at all since we got here," Brock stated

"Do you think he's lost?" Max asked

"I don't think so. He usually knows what he's doing. Kane said so himself," stated Erika

"Usually?" May questioned as the question hung in the air. Suddenly the stadium erupted into a roar of applause as Kane and his opponent began to make their way to the their platforms where they faced each other just a few feet above a battlefield covered in large boulders and otherwise rocky soil.

Kane's opponent was a woman roughly around the age of mid to late twenties with long brown hair that sparkled in the sunlight. She wore a blue skirt covered in plastic jewelry that stretched down just above her knees along with a matching blue sleeveless shirt that was worn tight around her chest giving many viewers in the stadium (especially Kane) a nice view of her cleavage.

"The challengers Kane Yaiba and Jade Parks will now begin! Both challengers will be allowed three pokemon each and victory will be decided when all three of the users pokemon are unable to battle! Are both of the challengers ready?" asked the referee to which both of them nodded "Let the battle begin!"

Kane threw his pokeball out revealing his Lucario ready for battle while Jade on the other hand tossed her pokeball in an elegant fashion revealing a Sableye with its wide and mischievous grin.

"_Wait… Parks? Does that mean-?"_ Kane thought as he shouted to his opponent "Are you related to Kitty Parks?"

"Huh? Yes, she's my little sister!" Jade shouted

"_Figures…" _thought Kane and then he asked "Your team consists of pokemon with jewelry doesn't it?"

"Of course! What kind of girl wouldn't resist jewelry? And with so many pokemon that have jewelry on them is like having two of your favorite things in one!" She responded joyfully as nearly the entire stadium began to sweat drop at Jade's statement.

"Anyway let's get this tournament started Lucario use Metal Claw!" ordered Kane as Lucario charged at the tiny pokemon but before Lucario could make contact the Sableye jumped out of the way just in time.

"Now Sableye use faint attack!" ordered Jade as Sableye disappeared from sight only to reappear behind Lucario with it's hands covered in darkness for the attack but before Sabeleye could even attack Lucario spun around and used metal claw sending Sableye flying backwards, knocked out cold.

"Huh? But how-?"

"Easy I knew that faint attack is an unavoidable attack and it would lure you in close. So instead I simply attacked you before YOU could attack," Explained the swordsman

"Very clever on Kane's part," said Brock

"Yeah that's Kane for you!" agreed Ash with a nod

"Yeah, he always knew what to do when it came to battling," Erika said with a light blush

"Where IS Kean? He's really missing out!" asked Ash but the whole group just shrugged

**Elsewhere (thirty minutes ago)**

Kean was running through the forest out of breath. During his training he came to notice a shadow in the bushes and after a quick metal claw from Kurogane the shadow revealed itself… to be a wild Nuzleaf. However this Nuzleaf was not just any Nuzleaf this one in particular had been causing trouble for Kean ever since he began training, from stealing food from his backpack to dropping nuts on him and his pokemon while they were training.

"I knew it was you! Kurogane let's catch it!" shouted the otaku trainer as Kurogane prepared himself for battle but instead of facing him and Kurogane, the Nuzleaf instead turned tail and ran back into the bushes.

Kean returned his other pokemon and gave chase with Kurogane at his side doing his best to keep the Wily pokemon in sight until the Nuzleaf ran into a clearing which Kean and Kurogane followed hoping to finally catch the pokemon off guard. However instead Kean found himself in the middle of a battlefield between two trainers and before he could say anything he found himself attacked from opposite sides from both an aura sphere and an energy ball attacks sending up a cloud of smoke and sending Kurogane flying back a few feet.

"Huh?" said the pink haired trainer standing behind her Lucario

"What?" asked a green-haired girl standing behind her Roserade

"Stop the battle!" replied a blue-haired man who was acting as referee for this battle.

The three trainers and their pokemon ran onto the field where they found a coughing Kean doing his best to stop his legs from wobbling as he tried to stand up.

"Are you okay? I'm sorry we were having a battle and then you just-"

"Hey wait! I know this kid!" said the blue-haired boy

Kean groaned, sure he had been attacked by all sorts of pokemon attacks that were worse than an energy ball or an aura sphere but that still didn't change the fact that it hurt! To make it worse he was attacked in surprise from both sides so it wasn't exactly fair to compare this to the other attacks he had been the victim of. "I'm fine… just give me a minute."

"Your name's Kean, right? A friend of Kane Yaiba?" asked the blue-haired boy

"Yeah but how-?" When Kean rubbed his eyes his vision finally cleared and he saw the familiar face of James, a former member of Team Rocket, whom Kane had befriended long before Kean and Kane traveled together. "James? And Gardenia? You're here too?"

"Yup!" said the grass type gym leader as she grinned

"Geeze is EVERY gym leader here?" Kean asked as he began to stand up.

"Well it IS the Master Tournament no one would dare miss this opportunity to actually be here especially the gym leaders," explained James

"Yeah but what about your gyms? Do you just close them?" Kean asked

"Well… some of us but others have someone run the gym for them until we return. Such as friends or family or even apprentices if they're strong enough," Gardenia explained

"Okay but last time I was at your gym James was definitely you're second in command and your best grass type user there, so why not let him run the gym?" asked Kean

At this the gym leader and the ex-Team rocket member began to blush, "Uhhh… well… you see-"

Gardenia took James' hand in hers and replied "because I wanted him to come along with me."

"Wait… you two aren't… together are you?" asked Kean

Before the two could answer Kean felt a tap on his shoulder as the dark-type trainer turned around he saw a girl around his age with a Band-Aid across her nose with short pink hair, she wore a sleeveless blue and black shirt and wore a pair of white trousers that if Kean looked down he would have seen that she wasn't wearing any shoes despite the rugged terrain of the field and forest. "Uhh… sorry about that attack earlier since it was kind of my fault."

"Oh, don't worry about it Maylene he gets hurt like this all the time according to Kane anyway," Gardenia answered for Kean

"Kane? You know Kane?" asked the pink-haired girl

"Yeah but who are- Wait! What time is it?" asked Kean

"Uhhh… it is about thirty minutes after four, Why?" asked James

"Crap! Kane's match in the tournament is gonna happen in fifteen minutes! Stupid Nuzleaf is gonna make me late!"

"Nuzleaf?! Where?!" asked the grass type fanatic Gardenia as she looked around the field like a starving predator might look for its next meal

"I gotta go now! See you guys later!" said Kean as he returned Kurogane to his pokeball and ran back into the forest before they could say anything else. As the dark-type trainer ran through the forest he processed the thought of James and Gardenia being a couple. "_What is with these people?! Don't they understand that there are more important things than love?! It's ridiculous!" _thought Kean angrily as he continued his sprint through the forest.

**Back at the Rock stadium (same time as before)**

Kane continued his match with his Lucario against Jade's newest pokemon a Starmie. Though the Starmie did manage to confuse Kane's Lucario with its Water Pulse attack allowing Jade to mercilessly bombard the Steel and fighting type with a mixture of Water Pulse and Psychic attacks, no one (at least no one who knew Kane) could doubt that the battle was still in Kane's favor judging from the irritated yet still level-headed look on his face.

As the fight continued Kane ordered Lucario to attack with Aura Sphere though all the attack seemed to do was destroy the boulders on the field most of the time.

"All right let's end this! Starmie use Psychic!" ordered Jade as Starmie's crystal began to glow until it released a blast of psychic energy towards Lucario

"Lucario Aura Sphere!" Shouted Kane as Lucario formed another one in between its palms and tossed it at the wall of psychic energy practically tearing through the attack and surprise attacking the Starmie sending it flying into the wall defeated sending the crowd into an uproar of cheers.

With only one pokemon left Jade recalled her Starmie and sent out her final pokemon… a Gigalith. "Now prepare to go up against Jem my strongest pokemon!" shouted Jade over the roar of the crowd

Kane recalled his Lucario and thought about who he should send out for the battle until he held up a pokeball and sent out his Magnezone.

"Magnezone? I thought he would send out his Metagross or Scizor to finish her off so why choose Magnezone?" questioned Max

"I think he wants to have all of his pokemon get as much exercise as they can get before he battles someone stronger," Erika replied

"Well it's no surprise… I mean Jade's good but Kane is on a whole other level," Anabel stated

"Yeah…" Ash agreed "A whole other level…"

"Hmm? Ash? Are you okay?" asked Anabel causing the others to also look at their friend with concern

"Huh? Oh, yeah! I'm fine don't worry," Ash replied with a smile that convinced the group to turn their attention back to the match. However Anabel still couldn't shake a small feeling in her stomach that made her question Ash's smile.

"Hey guys!" said a new voice as the others turned their heads to see an out-of-breath Kean

"There you are!" stated Brock "We thought you got lost."

"I only 'lost' track of time chasing this annoying Nuzleaf," explained Kean taking a seat next to Brock just behind Ash

"A Nuzleaf?" questioned May

"I'll tell you about it later, but right now can you tell me what I missed?" asked the dark-type trainer

The gang explained that Kane's opponent was a girl named Jade who used jewelry pokemon including Sableye, Starmie and now she was using her last pokemon Gigalith. Kean nodded and said "Well this should be over pretty quickly after all Gigalith IS a rock type and since Kane uses steel types it's only a matter of time."

"True, but… I can't help but think that this Gigalith is stronger than we've given it credit for," Brock said with his arms crossed

"All right Magnezone use Magnet Bomb!" ordered Kane

"Jem use Rock polish then dodge it!" ordered Jade as Gigalith began to sparkle and then avoided the projectile however much to the surprise of both Jade and Gigalith the magnet bomb altered its course and collided with the Compressed pokemon. "Huh? What was that?"

"Magnet bomb is an attack that never misses its target no matter how fast it is," stated Kane confidently as he ordered Magnezone to fire another magnet bomb

However this time instead of running Jade ordered her Gigalith to counter with power gem. The two attacks collided in mid-air canceling out both attacks and sending up a huge cloud of smoke that prevented anyone from seeing the two pokemon.

As the smoke began to lighten up a little allowing the trainers to see their pokemon's vague outlines Jade suddenly shout "Jem use rock polish again!"

At this the outline of the compressed pokemon began to sparkle a little and then Kane shouted, "Magnezone use Magnet Bomb!"

As Magnezone emerged out of the smoke and prepared to launch its attack at the shadow that was Jem the Gigalith, Jade ordered "Jem move forward and use Earth Power!"

Before Kane could order Magnezone to dodge, Jem slammed his front legs down on the earth causing chunks of the earth to fly upwards, gather around its mouth and fired it at the Magnet Area pokemon before it could even attack. Magnezone fell down and wobbled about, badly injured but not defeated.

"Okay let's finish it off with one more Earth Power!" shouted Jade as Jem rose up on its hind legs ready to prepare another attack but before he could slam his feet down Kane shouted "Magnet Rise!"

At this order Magnezone glowed and rose up in the air just as the attack was shot at Magnezone missing it completely.

"Huh? Do it again Jem!" shouted jade however as soon as the attack was shot at Magnezone the attack suddenly changed direction and flew down to the earth. "What is going on?"

"Magnet Rise makes the user immune to ground type attacks for a time. Now Magnezone get in close and finish it off with Zap Canon!" shouted Kane and Magnezone darted towards the compressed pokemon as a ball of black electricity began to form just between the two magnet-like appendages and shot it at the Compressed pokemon.

The attack collided with Jem headfirst causing the rock type to shuffle around in pain before finally collapsing. "Gigalith is unable to battle. Therefore the winner of this match is Kane Yaiba!"

With that the crowd erupted into a roar of applause as Jade returned Jem to his pokeball before sighing and turning around to leave but before she left Kane yelled out, "Hey! Good match!"

At this Jade turned around and shouted back to the grinning swordsman with a grin "You too!" Jade then left the stadium leaving Kane to soak up the crowd's cheers alone until he left the stadium as well to meet up with Erika and the others.

**Later**

After dropping off their pokemon at the pokemon center, the gang was sitting around an outside table eating lunch while they talked about ash and Kane's battles.

As the conversation continued May finally asked, "So what made you so late Kean?"

At this Kean's face grew pale as he motioned for May to be quiet but it was too late as Kane turned his head towards Kean "Huh? You were late for my match?"

"Way to go May! Now Kane's gonna kill me… again! And it was already bad enough I got attacked twice before I even got to the stadium," stated Kean angrily

"Huh? You were attacked? By what?" Anabel asked

"It was just and accident. I was chasing that troublemaking Nuzleaf and I ended up being led into the middle of a battle so I got attacked by Energy Ball and Aura Sphere at the same time," explained Kean taking a sip of water.

"At the same time?! You really ARE Immortal," Ash stated

"I am NOT immortal!" Kean nearly shouted causing some of the people passing by and the other people sitting down to look at him strangely

Kean cleared his throat, "Anyway it wasn't their fault it was that Nuzleaf and when I get my hands on him I am going to-"

"I thought that sounded like you," said a new voice as Kean and everyone else turned around to see Gardenia along with James and Maylene..

"Gardenia?" questioned Kane

"Maylene?" questioned Ash

"Team Rocket!" stated Brock, May and Max as they stood up

"What are you doing here James?" questioned Brock

James held up his hands defensively and spoke quietly so no one would hear him, "Wait, wait! I'm not a part of Team Rocket anymore!"

"It's true! Just ask Kane!" Gardenia said jumping to James defense

"She's right I know that for a fact so does Kean right?" said Kane as Kean nodded in agreement

"He's right Brock, Didn't I tell you that when Team Rocket was disbanded back in the Unova region?" Ash asked

"Well… yeah but still!" Brock stated

"Anyway out of all of Team Rocket James was the first to apologize to me Cilan and Iris along with Meowth before they left," Ash explained

"Well… fine but I'm NOT taking my eyes off you!" Brock stated to James

"Fine, but I've got nothing to hide this time, honest!" stated James

As the group finally sat around talking to each other explaining what they had been up to Kean had been surprised to learn that Maylene was actually a gym leader from the Sinnoh region and that not only Ash had met but Kane as well. After sharing stories with each other they then decided to look around and see other matches that were going on in other stadiums and after more discussion they decided it would be better to split up and investigate the other stadiums on their own.

The groups were as followed,

Grass field-Brock, James, Gardenia

Ice field-May, Max, Maylene and Kean

Sky field-Kane, Erika, Ash and Anabel

As expected Gardenia wanted to go to the grass stadium because it was the most likely place to spot grass pokemon and James decided to go with her (for obvious reasons). Brock decided to go with James and Gardenia due to the fact that he swore to keep an eye on James despite Gardenia, Kane and Ash's insistence that it wasn't needed.

May wanted to see the Ice field for a multitude of reasons (such as an idea involving her Skitty using blizzard to create an ice rink and using it for any future contests she might take part in). Max thought hard about which stadium he wanted to go to but May decided to draft Max along with her claiming that she had to keep an eye on him (though May had other reasons for bringing him along). Maylene decided to go to the Ice field though she didn't explain why and Kean decided to go along with them (much to May's relief) and like Maylene before him he didn't give his reasons for why.

With that being said the remaining four Ash, Anabel, Kane and Erika decided to observe this mysterious sky stadium to see what it was like and with that said the group split up and headed out to their destinations.

While May's group moved towards their destination May smiled happily until Maylene couldn't help but ask, "If you don't mind me asking why are you so happy?"

May looked back at Max, who was busy taking in the sights of the tournament that had brought all sorts of festivities to the small town, and she turned back to Maylene and explained, "Well, since Ash, Anabel, Kane and Erika are going to the same place by themselves it's kind of like a double date for them! And to make things better considering Brock is with Gardenia and James all it will take is a passing Officer Jenny or lone Nurse Joy to have James and Gardenia alone for their own date!"

At this May and even Maylene couldn't help but giggle at the thought of the six of them having their own little dates at this Kean subtly scoffed as he thought bitterly, "_Idiots… all of them. This 'love' of theirs is only going to end one way for all of them."_

_**And that's the end of chapter thirteen! Well it looks like Kean has some 'love' issues of his own. So what did make him think like this? What will the stadiums look like? And… why am I asking you guys this? Well you'll have to read the next chapter and you'll get your answers (…mostly).**_


	14. Chapter 14 Tripal Date?

**Inside the Grass stadium**

Gardenia and James walked through the stands until they finally found three empty seats that didn't appear to have been occupied and sat down leaving the third seat empty right beside them. Like May had said to Maylene a passing group of Officer Jennies had separated Brock from James and Gardenia and (unknown to them at the time) became lost in the crowd. By the time the realized that Brock was gone they were standing just outside the stadium.

The match down one the grass field was one between a Miltank and a Weepinbell and to no surprise James and Gardenia were routing for the Weepinbell. The battle itself was rather exciting because the grass field had a set of bushes spread out around the field which the Weepinbell had been using to as an anchor to swing itself about the field to avoid any rollout attacks from the Miltank and even use them as cover from any other attacks the trainer ordered their Miltank to use.

In the heat of the battle Gardenia and James had completely forgotten about Brock. However, elsewhere Brock had certainly not forgotten about James and Gardenia and was looking around the stadium for them. Of course Brock would no doubt rather flirt with the Officer Jennies from earlier but after a quick poison jab and a short drag away from any trace of Officer Jenny snapped him back to his senses.

The grass stadium, like all the others, was roughly the size of an average football stadium and had just as many people packed in it. So needless to say, finding Gardenia and James was not going to be easy for the rock-type gym leader…

**Inside the Ice stadium**

May, Maylene, Max and Kean took their seats in the stands and watched a battle between a Frosslass and a Nosepass. The Nosepass spent most of the battle sliding about the field like an oversized hockey puck in order to avoid most of Frosslass' attacks, while at the same time shooting rock blasts at the Snow Land pokemon.

After a few dizzying moments of watching the fight the Frosslass finally fell after a surprise point-blank range Zap Cannon attack sent the ice-ghost type flying onto it's back forcing the trainer to recall Frosslass and send out a new pokemon… a Bisharp.

At this Kean's eyes grew wide and he called out Kurogane whom he had sit on his lap in an effort to see if Kurogane watching a Bisharp fight would help give Kurogane an idea of what he would be like if he evolved.

And the battle continued…

**Inside the Sky stadium**

Ash, Anabel, Kane and Anabel made their way to their seats, when they finally sat down they began to examine the sky field. The battle field alone was larger than all the other fields they'd been to so far and with the props that were used for this 'sky field' it was no surprise.

The platforms where the two trainers stood were easily twice as tall as all the other stadiums and the field itself consisted of multiple towers that were all at various heights with only five towers total being taller than the platforms where the trainers stood. The towers also seemed to have these large openings at the top just beneath the area where the pokemon would stand and a series of strange branch-like appendages appeared around certain areas of the towers.

The current trainers that were battling were a grey haired man in his early twenties; he had golden eyes, wore strange blue and black clothing and was currently using a Skarmory to battle against a Galvantula that was jumping from platform to platform while shooting out bolts of electricity at the Armor Bird pokemon.

For a moment it actually looked like a bolt of electricity would hit the Skarmory but instead the trainer ordered Skarmory to tilt to the right just a little and suddenly the Skarmory was pushed back by an unseen force away from the electricity. The trainer then ordered Skarmory to use Aerial Ace and the Skarmory then managed to turn around entirely and dart towards the electric-bug pokemon and send it flying onto another platform defeated.

"Galvantula is unable to battle and therefore the winner of this match is Wes Nights!" shouted the referee sending the whole stadium into an uproar.

"Oh I see! The openings at the top of the tower take in the passing winds and send it out through ventilation shafts inside the towers to the openings on the tower's branches making wind currents," explained Kane

"_Like the battle at the air battle master's_," thought Ash

"That guy seemed to know what he was doing with that Skarmory," Anabel stated causing the others to nod their heads as the grey-haired man left the field with nothing more than a confident grin, though the look in his eyes showed that he had more than just confidence in his arsenal.

With the battle over the crowd was given a ten-minute break before the next match. Ash and Kane decided to use this time to get some refreshments for the girls while Erika and Anabel made sure they would keep their seats for them.

While the boys walked to the concession stand Ash pondered a certain question that had been on his mind for a while now. Ash took a deep breath and said, "Kane can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?" Kane asked

Ash motioned for them to move to a less public place so Ash and Kane walked away from the food stands that were now completely surrounded by hungry spectators. Soon the two found an empty corridor where the two stopped allowing Ash to take another deep breath as he spoke, "How- I mean… err… What should I do for Anabel?"

"Huh? I don't understand what you're asking Ash," explained the older trainer

"I mean… well I haven't been much of a boyfriend to Anabel. I mean ever since we kissed at that doctor's tower we have been doing nothing but train for this tournament and well… I feel like I haven't been much of a boyfriend to her," explained Ash

The two trainers remained silent for a few short seconds then Kane began to snicker until he finally let out an amused laugh much to Ash's embarrassment and anger.

"Hey! That's not funny!" Ash nearly shouted

Kane regained control of himself and said, "No, no that laugh was just me remembering that this was you I was talking to."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ash asked

"Well here's what I'm saying; You Ash Ketchum have NEVER been in love and YOU now come to me asking how to be a better boyfriend for your girlfriend when the only thing you ever cared about before was training and battling with your pokemon. That's why it's so funny! Your growing up whether you know it or not."

"Okay, I guess you have a point there," said Ash as he realized that before he realized his feelings for Anabel he had never been in love before.

"Anyway trust me you don't need to do anything to impress her. After all you two do have fun together don't you?" Kane asked to which Ash nodded and Kane continued, "Then you are just fine the way you are. That's why Me and Erika are so well with each other. She accepts me for who I am and she accepts all of my traits both good and bad."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Ash asked

Kane just shook his head with a sigh "I'll tell you later but right now let's get something for the girls I think they might be getting worried and the line is short enough now."

"Good point I don't want to miss the next match!" Ash agreed and the two boys went back to the line and waited for their turn.

Meanwhile while the boys were chatting the Anabel and Erika were having their own private conversation…

Just after the boys left to get them some refreshments Anabel and Erika sat there quietly. During their time in silence Anabel could help but examine Erika's features and then compared them to her own. Erika's hair was not exactly long but it fell straight down to her shoulders while Anabel's was short, Erika had a well-developed body that may not have been the most seductive of all the women Anabel had seen in her life (not that she ever truely looked) but was certainly more appealing than Anabel's practically flat-chest and other underdeveloped areas.

Erika then noticed Anabel's quiet stares and asked the salon maiden, "Is there something on your mind Anabel?"

Anabel just shook her head and looked up at the clouds thinking back to previous events when she suddenly felt something cold touch her cheek causing her to nearly jump out of her seat in surprise. Anabel turned her head to see a smiling Ash staring down at her holding some cold water bottles in his hand while Kane walked past the two giving Erika her drink as the gang sat down just as the announcer began to announce the next match…

**Back at the grass Stadium**

Brock was still searching through the stadium for Gardenia and James as he turned a corner he stopped just in time to prevent himself from running over a familiar water type gym leader… Misty.

"Huh? Misty?" questioned Brock

"Brock? Are you here to see the match too?" asked Misty

Brock shook his head but before he could explain what he was doing Misty began dragging him along to her seats while saying that the next match would have very familiar faces in it and soon Brock found himself sitting next in between Misty and a strangely familiar man who looked about the same age as he was however this man had spikey yellow hair that practically blocked all view of the people unfortunate enough to sit behind him and Brock then noticed that the person sitting next to the man was one with red hair that looked like the man's head was on fire and the man next to him had blue hair in the shape of a fin. Despite how odd the three of them looked Brock couldn't help but feel that he knew these men from somewhere before though he couldn't think of anything.

"Remember them?" Misty asked Brock who just shook his head but before she could explain a small brown haired boy around the age of fourteen or fifteen walked out onto the field as the announcer began to speak,

"_And now the next round of the Master's tournament! And taking his place in the stadium right now is none other than the proclaimed King of the B-button League Mikey!"_

At this the three strange men stood up and began cheering loudly for the brown haired boy and then brock remembered who the boy was and who the three men were. They were the battling Eevee Brothers from way back when Brock had been traveling with Ash and Misty throughout Kanto.

"I ran into Mikey a few hours ago and he said his match was going to be here so I wanted to make sure I'd see his match," explained Misty as the announcer began to tell the crowd who Mikey's opponent was.

"_And now the B-button King's opponent, a gym leader from the Sinnoh region the Icy cool, Brycen!" _The Announcer declared as a man in his mid thirties wearing a mask and strange robes like something out of a kung-fu movie took the field with a wave to the crowd.

And so their battle began…

**Back at the Ice Stadium**

The last battle between the Nosepass and the Bisharp was now over with the Bisharp claiming victory for its trainer (much to the crowd's approval). Kean returned Kurogane to his pokeball having hopefully given Kurogane a few helpful pointers on how Kurogane can get strong enough to evolve. However after what the announcer said next made the previous applause sound almost silent in comparison. The next match was between an elite four and a supposed favorite among all of the regular trainers in the tournament.

When the challengers walked to their respective platforms Kean froze where he sat and stood up as if he was trying to get a better view of the arena making sure to get an extra good view of the blue corner.

"Kean? What's wrong?" May asked to which Kean gave no reply

Then the two challengers took their places in their respective platforms, one of the challengers was a woman in her early thirties if not mid-twenties, she wore a strange blue robe type of dress with white pokeball insignias all over it along with ankle bracelets that showed she was not wearing shoes. She also wore a bikini-like top that covered her breasts along with two large flowers woven into the sides of her short hair. Despite her looks she had a very calm ambience about her and the announcer finally spoke.

"_Ladies and Gentlemen we have a spectacular show for you today because we will be watching a fight between elite four members of different regions! To the blue corner we have Phoebe of the Hoenn Elite Four!" _

Phoebe waved to the crowd with a grin as the audience erupted into an uproar of cheers (and a few wolf whistles as well) as the announcer spoke up once again, "_And her opponent in the green corner is the bug-loving Elite Four member of the Sinnoh region… Aaron!"_

At this the other platform rose up revealing a man around the same age as Phoebe with green hair that had one hair sticking up like a stray antenna, he wore a sleeveless black shirt that had red lines in a symmetrical pattern along with Cargo pants and sneakers and, like Phoebe before him, he also wove to the crowd much to the approval of multiple fans (mostly women).

Back to Kean's group Kean had been staring at Phoebe as soon as he saw her enter the stadium and Maylene was the first to notice this so she asked, "Kean? Do you know Phoebe?"

"Maybe he has a crush on her," May said with a giggle but Kean shook his head and sat down with a sigh, "She's my big sister…"

_**So there you have it Chapter 14 all done at last! Looks like Anabel and Ash are having some… 'issues' with their relationship (I wonder how that will go?). So… what did you think of all the characters I've introduced in this chapter? What will be the outcome of some of those battles? Who is fighting in the Sky stadium? And Phoebe is Kean's older sister? Well who could have seen that coming?**_

_**Like it? Don't like it? Send me your opinions**_


	15. Chapter 15 Aaron vs Phoebe

**Ice Stadium**

Kean watched in silence as Phoebe battle against Aaron. Her first move had been simple she had sent out one of her Banette (whom she had named Maria) while Aaron on the other hand had sent out his Vespiquen. So far the battle on the ice field had been pretty simple, the pokemon ran (or flying in Vespiquen's case) around the field sending out attack after attack with none of them actually striking their opponent. In fact it almost looked more like a game of tag between the two pokemon than a match between elite four members… at least to the untrained eye.

Kean knew how Phoebe fought, having witnessed a lot of her battles in the past, and this battle was n different even with the ice. In fact the ice had no say in the battle what so ever! Phoebe trained all of her ghost pokemon to be able to hover in the air just as easily as walking (which could be difficult for some ghost pokemon) and thanks to that the slippery ice field couldn't trip up any of Phoebe's pokemon… but what about Aaron's pokemon?

"Maria use faint attack!" ordered Phoebe as Maria darted towards Vespiquen so fast she was a blur to everyone in the stadium and then whacked Vespiquen across the right side of its head with its sleeve-like fist.

Vespiquen floated backward from the attack but quickly regained her composure since dark type attacks weren't that effective on bug pokemon many people in the stadium were wondering what she was thinking. Kean thought for a moment then snapped his fingers when he had an idea of what she was planning.

"What are you thinking of?" Max asked Kean

"I think I know what she's doing," Kean responded

"Well? What is it?" asked May

"Watch and you'll find out…"

"All right! Maria faint attack again- Tennis style!" ordered Phoebe

"Huh? Tennis style?" Maylene questioned looking at Kean for answers but Kean just pointed at the battle rather than answer

Before Aaron could question what her plan was, Maria darted towards Vespiqueen with the same speed as before and whacked it to the right this time then suddenly Maria darted after it knocking Vespiqueen upward with another faint attack and continued the whack and dart after strategy giving Vespiqueen little time to regain its composure every time.

"I get it! Faint attack never misses so using faint attack over and over with speed and accuracy like that makes the move much more effective against a bug type like Vespiqueen," stated Max

As soon as Max finished his sentence Vespiquen once again was sent upward from another faint attack and in another dash and whack combo of faint attack Vespiqueen was hit on the head from above and sent plummeting towards the ice field.

"Vespiquen use Power Jem!" Aaron ordered as the Beehive pokemon held up its arms and threw a giant sparkling orb at the unsuspecting Marionette pokemon.

The attack collided causing a huge explosion which Maria fell out of damaged, but not finished just yet.

"Maria, Shadow Ball!" Phoebe ordered as a ball of ghostly energy formed between Maria's hands and hurled it at Vespiquen.

"No so fast! Vespiquen use Power Jem once more!" ordered Aaron as Vespiquen created another sparkling orb between her hands and hurled it at Maria's shadow ball causing another large explosion that knocked both pokemon backwards knocking Maria out cold.

Vespiquen on the other hand was badly injured but still able to fly just a little. "Banette is unable to battle. Therefore the winner of this match is Vespiquen!" shouted the referee as the crowd began to cheer in approval of the amazing battle that they just witnessed.

Phoebe recalled Maria and thanked her for a great battle and then pulled out a second pokeball and thought, "_Vespiquen looks like it'll collapse in one hit but just to be safe…_"

Phoebe tossed out her second pokeball revealing the Shed pokemon Shedinja.

"All right, Vespiquen use Heal Order!" shouted Aaron as Vespiquen began to glow as a group of tiny bug-like creatures began to appear and began healing Vespiquen.

"Not so fast! Shedinja use Heal Block!" ordered Phoebe as Shedinja began to glow a light purple light which burst in the form of a shockwave that caused all of the tiny insects around Vespiquen to disappear and stopped Vespiquen from glowing.

"Huh? Wha-!"

"Now use Shadow Sneak!" ordered Phoebe as Shedinja's shadow began to stretch towards Vespiquen and rose up just behind the Beehive pokemon and struck it down into an ice column before it could try to defend itself.

"Vespiquen is unable to battle. Therefore the winner of this match is Shedinja!" announced the referee sending the stadium in another uproar of cheers while Kean nodded in approval.

Aaron recalled Vespiquen and thanked her for an amazing battle and thought for a bit before he finally pulled out a pokeball and tossed it as the Butterfly pokemon Beautifly appeared out of it.

"Now use Air slash!" Aaron ordered as Beautifly began flapping its wings sending out gusts of razor sharp winds at Shedinja to which Shedinja narrowly managed to avoid them, the razor wind continued until they ran into an ice column and sliced it cleanly into ice cubes.

"_Whoa, now THAT is powerful. How will you get out of this one sis?"_ thought Kean

"Use Will-o-wisp!" Phoebe ordered as small blue fire balls surrounded the Shed pokemon and flew towards Beautifly.

At first Beautifly managed to avoid nearly all of them while flying closer and closer to Shedinja but just when both Aaron and Beautifly thought the attack was over a final blue flame appeared from behind Shedinja's back and struck the Butterfly pokemon's right wing giving it a painful burn condition.

"_Grr! Fell for that one but still I gotta finish this!" _thought Aaron as he shouted, "Air Slash one more time!"

"Shadow Sneak!" Phoebe shouted to the Shed pokemon as its shadow moved towards the Butterfly pokemon and began to rise just as Beautifly began flapping its wings sending razor sharp wind towards the bug and ghost type.

Both attacks collided and a cloud of smoke covered up the area where Beautifly and Shedinja were hovering over and when the smoke cleared Shedinja was the first to fall with Beautifly close behind however unlike Shedinja, who fell onto the icy ground defeated Beautifly managed to glide upward just enough to avoid a painful fall onto the cold ground.

"Shedinja is unable to battle therefore the winner is Beautifly!" shouted the referee with another roar of approval from the audience.

"_Even Phoebe's Shedinja can't last against a strong attack like that,"_ thought Kean knowing full well that all Shedinja's have low HP meaning a strong attack in the right spot could end a battle with one instantly.

Phoebe plucked out her third and final pokeball and tossed it as Phoebe's final pokemon made its appearance the Gripper pokemon Dusknoir.

"Here we go…" Kean said subconsciously earning a few confused looks from his companions.

"Use Mean Look then Future Sight!" ordered Phoebe as Dusknoir's eye closed and then opened with the flash of a purple light preventing Beautifly from being substituted and then Dusknoir held up his hands as a psychic energy was seen in both Dusknoir's hands and eye as a sign of the upcoming attack.

"Beautifly use Morning sun then Silver Wind!" Aaron ordered deciding to try a combo attack himself.

However Phoebe would not let Aaron have his way as she ordered "Dusknoir use Rock Tomb!"

Dusknoir held up its hands as chunks of rock formed in between them and hurled them just above the glowing Beautifly and falling down on top of the unsuspecting Butterfly pokemon ending its battle.

"Beautifly is unable to battle therefore Dusknoir is the winner!" announced the referee

"_Phew! Now it looks like you might have a chance after all," _Kean thought with a grin knowing that Future Sight still hadn't happened yet meaning whatever pokemon Aaron sent out next would be in for a surprise.

Aaron pulled out his final pokeball and tossed it revealing none other than his strongest pokemon… the Ogre Scorpion pokemon, Drapion.

"What? Oh, damn it!" Kean cursed and as if on cue the future sight made itself known and struck Aaron's Drapion who just shrugged off the attack to no surprise to Phoebe or Kean.

"Nice try but I'm not gonna let you catch me off guard like that," stated Aaron with a smirk

"Well it wouldn't be any fun if you didn't provide me with a decent challenge at least," Phoebe shot back with a smirk

And that was just the beginning of the true battle for the two elites…

**Grass Stadium**

The battle between Brycen and Mikey was going amazingly well. In fact so far Mikey had taken out two of Brycen's three pokemon leaving Brycen with only his Beartic left who was now battling against Mikey's Wingull and was pulling off rather well since he still had one pokemon left after Wingull.

"Icicle Crash!" Brycen ordered as Beartic opened it' mouth shooting out a barrage of thick icicles at the water and flying type.

"Dodge and use Steel Wing!" Mikey ordered as Wingull began swooping around avoiding all the icicles getting closer and closer until Wingull finally made contact on the large ice type.

"Icicle crash once more!" Brycen ordered and Beartic once again shot out a barrage of icicles

"Wingull just like before dodge and then use Steel Wing!" Mikey ordered as Wingull once again darted around avoiding icicles and got closer and closer to the Freezing pokemon however Brycen was prepared this time…

"Use Slash!" Brycen suddenly ordered as Wingull swooped in for the kill but with lightning fast speed Beartic brought its claws down onto Wingull sending it flying backwards into the ground defeated.

"Wingull is unable to battle therefore Beartic is the winner!" announced the referee

Mikey recalled Wingull and threw out his final pokemon his starter pokemon Eevee and the battle continued….

**Outside the Sky Stadium**

Ash, Anabel, Kane and Erika left the Sky Stadium after they heard a call from May on her pokegear saying they had to get over to the ice stadium right now, wondering what the others were doing and as they made their way to the Ice Stadium in the hopes of meeting up with Kean and the others. The group began to chat about other times as they walked but suddenly Anabel felt a chill down her spine and turned around only to find no one there besides the usual crowd of both competitors and spectators.

"Anabel? Is something wrong?" Ash asked as the group stopped walking causing Pikachu to twitch its ears in an attempt to listen for something but couldn't pick up a thing over the hustle and bustle of the crowd all around them.

"No… I just had a funny feeling that's all," Anabel said

"You feel sick?" Kane asked looking concerned for the young frontier brain

"No, no I just had a feeling that something was wrong that's all," Anabel said, "anyway it was probably nothing let's just keep going."

Anabel walked past the three of them as Ash began to follow making sure to catch up to her before grinning at her and saying something to her that was out of Kane's hearing range.

When he was sure that the two lovers weren't listening Kane said to Erika, "You think she's hiding something?"

Erika nodded "She looked like she wanted to tell me something back at the stadium while you and Ash were out getting drinks but she told me not to pay it any mind."

Kane shook his head with a sigh, "Even with Ash by her side she's still the same shy Anabel." Erika looked at the young sword master with a confused look but after a smile from Kane and a shout from Ash telling both of them to hurry up, Erika forgot about it and followed Kane in a sprint after the young couple.

Little did they know that nearby someone actually WAS watching them. However even if they had turned back now they would never find him as the mysterious figure turned towards the crowd and walked off into it not saying a word thinking only about his mission…

**Ice Stadium**

The battle between Aaron's Drapion and Phoebe's Dusknoir was still going strong though now from everyone's perspective it was only a matter of time until one of them fell. However that didn't mean that the battle was getting boring, far from it in fact, the two Elite Four members made sure to calculate their moves while keeping both their pokemon on their toes (in a matter of speaking) and made sure to only attack when they were absolutely sure it would hit.

As a result of the battle all of the ice chunks were now reduced to either piles of ice shards no bigger than moth balls and parts of the ice field itself were now covered in cracks. Though this made no difference to Dusknoir it certainly gave Drapion a slight disadvantage because of its lack of footing.

Phoebe thought for a moment and decided that rather than have Dusknoir glide around playing a game of shoot-out with Aaron's Drapion she would try something reckless on her part. "Okay Dusknoir use Rock Tomb!"

Dusknoir obeyed throwing a set of large boulders down onto Drapion but like before Drapion dodged it with incredible ease and was now gliding on the ice to avoid any after effect of the attack. However this was part of Phoebe's TRUE plan, "Now glide towards it and use Shadow Punch!"

Just then Dusknoir began to dart towards the Ogre Scorpion pokemon as its right fist became wrapped in a ghostly energy ready to be fired at close range when Phoebe gave the order.

Aaron seeing no other option ordered Drapion to use Cross Poison to counter and just then Phoebe gave the order to release the Shadow Punch when the Gripper pokemon was nearly a foot away from Drapion. The attack flew towards Drapion and, if you could slow down time, you could see as Drapion's Cross Poison had neatly cut the Shadow Punch into four tiny pieces causing it to fade out without injuring Drapion at all and left Dusknoir and Phoebe both stunned and within range…

"Now use Crunch!" ordered Aaron as Drapion lunged at Dusknoir with its mouth open as dark energy formed around it's fangs as it bit down multiple times on the Gripper pokemon causing it to stumble backwards in pain from the super effective hit as Aaron ordered Drapion to finish it off with Pin Missile.

The attack had worked Dusknoir now lied down on the ice floor defeated leaving Aaron the victor of the match. To which Phoebe gave a disappointed sigh and returned Dusknoir to its pokeball thanking it for doing such a good job while Aaron waved to the cheering crowd and gave Phoebe a thumbs up to which Phoebe just grinned as she walked off her platform leaving Aaron to enjoy his spoils of victory.

"_Nice work Sis…" _Kean thought with a smile as his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice causing him to nearly jump out of his shoes as he turned his head to see Kane, Erika, Ash and Anabel standing right beside him.

"Now THAT was a great match don't you think?" Kane asked to witch Kean and his group agreed as they left the stadium together planning on meeting up with Brock and the others, whom they STILL thought was with James and Gardenia, and talk about what they witnessed in the stadiums.

"Sooo… how come you never mentioned that Phoebe was your sister?" May asked to witch the entire group save for Kane looked shocked at the news.

Kean just shrugged and said "I didn't think it was that important."

Anabel turned her head to Kane and asked the steel type trainer, "Did you know about this?"

Kane nodded but before he could say anything Kean said he had to leave for a moment and he darted off towards the Ice Stadium.

Kane cleared his throat and explained, "All I know is that Kean was raised for a very short time by Phoebe in place of their parents before he left on his own journey with his Scorupi and I didn't see him again until I found him in the Unova region looking for a Pawniard and after that he stayed with me on our journeys."

"So what happened to his parents?" Ash asked to which Kane just shrugged explaining that he had never really talked to Phoebe that much let alone asked her about her and Kean's parents.

Maylene frowned and when the group walked off to the Grass Stadium Maylene decided to run after Kean strangely curious about this boy's past.

Elsewhere inside the Ice Stadium Kean managed to sneak into the area where Phoebe most likely left and soon he found her walking towards the pokemon center no doubt to get her pokemon examined.

Kean looked around realizing that no one was around and made his way to his sister who turned around and gave her little brother a big hug. Kean managed to break free of the hug and began speaking, "I'm glad to see you too Sis."

"You saw the battle?" the ghost type trainer asked to which Kean nodded and Phoebe looked down at her feet with a defeated look in her eyes.

"Hey, don't worry about it Sis. No matter what you will ALWAYS be my sister and that makes you number one in my book." Kean said with a grin

Phoebe smiled, muttered a thank you and gave her little brother another hug as she to which Kean, once again, had to struggle to escape from. It was at this point that Maylene had managed to find Kean as he was being hugged by his sister but she made sure to stay back and be hidden so as not to disturb them.

"By the way Sis I need you to do me a small favor." Phoebe looked at her brother and raised an eyebrow before she asked what it was to which Kean answered, "I want you to promise me to not tell ANYONE here about… _them._"

Phoebe looked at her brother confused until a look of realization fell on her face, "Them? Our parents? You still haven't let that go? Kean why-"

To this Kean grabbed Phoebe by her arms in a tight and slightly painful grip and said in a more angry voice, "PROMISE me you won't tell!"

Maylene couldn't see Kean's expression but it didn't take an expert to see that from the look on Phoebe's nearly timid face and judging from the way his fingers dug into his sister's arms that Kean was absolutely serious about what he said.

As her brother's grip tightened on her arms making her wince in pain the Elite Four member finally conceived, "I-I promise."

Kean instantly released his grip on his sister and judging from his shaking hands and the sound of his voice Maylene could assume he was both scared and upset about what he just done.

"I'm sorry Phoebe. I'm so sorry," said the dark type trainer as he wrapped his arms around his older sister to which she hugged him back though much gentler then the previous hugs as a few tears streamed down his face.

Maylene had seen enough whatever had happened in Kean's past was something that he didn't want others to know. However at the same time she had this strange urge to WANT to know, maybe it was just her curious nature, maybe it was a desire to help the poor boy, or maybe it was something deeper. Whatever it was Maylene was determined to try and find out about his past and maybe help both him and her sister in the progress of doing so.

Maylene slowly walked away making sure that neither of the siblings heard her as she ran off back to the group.

_**Well that certainly was an interesting chapter don't you think? Looks like Kean has a few… 'dark' secrets he doesn't want to share. As for Ash and Anabel let's see how their relationship will go after all of this secret stuff comes to light though with someone watching them things could get complicated.**_

_**All that aside I have just recently got Pokemon Black 2 and have made my way past Burgh. I have to say it's a shame I won't be able to put some of the newer gym leaders in the tournament but maybe I can put them in the story at some point. What do you guys think?**_

_**So like it? Hate it? Leave me reviews after all they help and inspire me!**_


	16. Chapter 16 Champions and Family

**Master's Tournament Command Room**

At the end of the second round of the Master's Tournament the champions of the five regions were set to meet up in a special room along with the President of the Pokemon League Charles Goodshow himself, to address those that had advanced into the next round.

Currently the only ones missing from the meeting were Lance who was out making sure security was still at its finest and Alder who was out checking up on the last of the gym leaders and Elite Four members that had made it on to the next round. That left Mr. Goodshow with three champions, Steven who represented the Hoenn region, Cynthia who represented the Sinnoh region, and Wallace who, due to his and Steven's current battle record of defeating each other over and over till they had both lost over 50 times to each other in the time that Steven had become Champion of Hoenn, had been given the title as representative Champion of the Kanto region since it had been under Lance's rule as champion of both Kanto and Johto.

Regardless the champions stood around waiting for the return of their two missing champions until the doors finally opened to reveal an exhausted-looking Lance along with Alder who held a piece of crumpled paper in his hand that had no doubt been in his pocket for a while.

"I apologize for being late after I finished checking security I found Mr. Alder sleeping under a tree near the Grass Stadium," explained the champion of Johto and Kanto

Alder just shrugged as if it was no big deal, which he no doubt was sure it was, as he spoke "Hey keeping tabs on the battles of all the gym leaders and the elite four gets tiring."

At this Steven spoke up, "You only had to make sure who went on to the next round. Didn't you go to the video room so they could show you who won?"

"Video room? I went from stadium to stadium watching each match that was asked though I did miss a couple of matches like the match against uhhh… who was it?," Alder then looked at his piece of paper and then looked up, "Oh yeah! The match against that Kanto gym leader Captain Skurge. Luckily Marshall had decided to help me out and told me about it along with a few other matches that I missed."

The entire room sweatdropped at Alder's story (especially after Lance corrected Alder getting Surge's name and rank). The video room would have showed him all matches that had transpired that day and then all he'd have to do is check off those of status who had lost to others in the tournament but clearly Alder preferred the more primitive way of doing things.

"Maybe I should just do the list from now on," Cynthia suggested to which the whole room nodded

"What? Come on what's the good in just checking off who won when you can see what I wrote down?!" said the Unova Champion as he took the paper and placed it down on the coffee table in front of Mr. Goodshow.

Mr. Goodshow took the paper and looked through it and not only did the paper tell him who had lost but who had won as well and even the names of those that had won. "Alder as nice as this is, I would prefer to just know who made it on to the next round… at least until we get to the fourth or fifth round anyway."

Alder just sighed and muttered something about 'not being able to please anyone' until Lance had noticed something on the list.

"President Goodshow if I may, can we please have all of us see the list?" Lance asked politely as possible to which Mr. Goodshow had agreed and Lance took the piece of paper and placed it into a scanner which showed the very same piece of paper on a plus sized screen allowing all of them to observe the current situation of the tournament.

Kanto (wins-3/4)

Lt. Surge vs. Pkmn Trainer Ash Ketchum (Victor-Ash), Blaine vs. Juggler Thomas (Victor-Blaine), Bruno vs. Swimmer Bruce (Victor-Bruno), Lorelei vs. Gentleman Walter (Victor-Lorelei)

Johto (wins-2/4)

Morty vs. Poke Maniac Chuck (Victor-Morty), Clair vs. Ranger Mary (Victor-Clair), Will vs. Pkmn trainer Tobias (Victor-Tobias), Karen vs. Pkmn Trainer Eldes (Victor-Eldes)

Hoenn (wins-2/4)

Brawly vs. Electrcian Sam (Victor-Brawly), Flannery vs. Expert Siv (Victor-Siv), Phoebe vs. Elite Four Aaron (Victor-Aaron), Drake vs. Sailor Francis (Victor-Drake)

Sinnoh (wins-4/4)

Maylene vs. Cyclist Tailor (Victor-Maylene), Wake vs. Hex Maniac Dorthy (Victor-Wake), Aaron vs. Elite Four Phoebe (Victor-Aaron), Lucian vs. Bug Catcher Phil (Victor-Lucian)

Unova (wins-3/4)

Skyla vs. Scientist Carl (Victor-Skyla), Brycen vs. B-Button King Mikey (Victor-Mikey), Marshall vs. Bodybuilder Laura (Victor-Marshall), Caitlen vs. Bird Catcher Mark (Victor- Caitlen)

The group stared at the screen for a few minutes in silence until Wallace finally spoke up, "Hold on a second. How did two elite four members fight each other so soon in the tournament?"

At this Mr. Goodshow just shrugged the matches had all been put at random yes but the elite four (along with the gym leaders) had the option of actually picking their own challenge from what Mr. Goodshow could assume this would mean that either Aaron or Phoebe had issued a challenge against each other or they both had been the victims of fate in the situation of both obtaining an opponent at random.

At this Cynthia gave a smirk of pride at the news that one of HER elite four members had emerged triumphant in a match against another Elite Four member of another region to which Steven and Wallace just rolled their eyes in annoyance (Although it didn't help that their home region had currently lost two of its five representatives, one of whom was an elite four member no less, while the Sinnoh region had lost none).

"Hey, what's with this title here? I've never heard of B-Button King as a trainer title before," questioned Steven to which Mr. Goodshow explained about a radical group of pokemon trainers who had dedicated their lives to not evolving their pokemon and bringing out the un-evolved pokemon's true potential and as for the part of the boy's title being 'King' Mr. Goodshow just shrugged.

"Oh yeah, that kid's battle against Brycen was spectacular! Never thought I'd see an Eevee take down Brycen's Beartic in such a clever yet powerful fashion," Alder said with a wide grin telling the others that whoever this 'B-Button King was he was not to be taken lightly judging from how much praise Alder just gave him.

Lance then looked back at Kanto's current situation and then he gave a wide grin of amusement before Cynthia asked, "What's so amusing Lance?"

"I just noticed who defeated Lt. Surge." Lance said with a grin, "So I'm glad to see an old friend of mine is doing well."

"Huh? Wait Ash is in this tournament too?" Cynthia asked as she too took a closer look at who had defeated Kanto's electric type gym leader

"Yeah and let me tell you, from what Marshall told me that boy was impressive! Dash really gave Captain Surd a run for his money!" Alder said with a laugh as the others sweat dropped to Alder getting Surge's (along with Ash's) name wrong again.

"Good to see that boy's matches certainly won't be boring ones! He deserves a good challenge especially here!" said Mr. Goodshow with a smile

"Hmm… Ash now why does that name sound familiar?" Steven asked himself and then looked to his long-time friend and rival Wallace for an answer but like Steven Wallace just shrugged not sure who this 'Ash' was to earn so much respect from three of the champions and even Mr. Goodshow himself.

"Perhaps you just heard of him from someone else?" Wallace suggested

"Maybe but I still feel like I should know this person but I don't know why," Steven said with a sigh as the meeting continued.

**Elsewhere**

Ash and Anabel were out on their own as the evening sun was beginning to set. After meeting up with everyone and exchanging stories Ash was surprised to hear about Mikey being in the tournament and defeating Brycen no less in the process then after dinner and a few short one-on-one battles between all of them they finally went their separate ways and now Ash was alone (aside from Pikachu who was conversing with Anabel's Espeon while walking beside his trainer) with Anabel again who seemed to be in her own little world since she hadn't spoken much since dinner with everyone.

"Uhm… Anabel?"

"Yes, Ash?" the Salon Maiden replied

"Is something wrong?" Ash asked "You've been quiet… I mean REALLY quiet since we ate with everyone."

"No, nothing's wrong." Anabel said with a soft smile but before Ash could ask another question a loud voice was heard.

"YOU! There you are!" shouted the voice which surprised both the Salon maiden and her boyfriend until they turned around to see a man with long lilac hair a lot like Anabel's wearing glasses and what appeared to be a suit. Alongside was a shorter individual with hair of the same color as Anabel and the man however this man wore a strange mask and even stranger clothing that made him look both like a gentleman and something out of a circus.

"Lucian?" questioned Ash remembering meeting Lucian of Sinnoh's Elite Four back during his travel's in the Sinnoh region and surprised to see a very mad (let alone loud) Lucian staring him down like he just attacked him and was hear for revenge.

"Will? Lucian? What are you two doing here?" Anabel asked putting her hand on her chest as she breathed a sigh of relief after nearly having a heart-attack from Lucian's yelling

"Anabel! Are you okay? He hasn't done anything to you yet, has he?" Lucian asked as he tried to run towards the Salon Maiden but was held back by the shorter man whom Ash could guess was named Will.

"Anabel, you know Lucian?" Ash asked to which Anabel nodded and pointed to both Lucian and the shorter man

"They're… my… big brothers," said Anabel with a sigh of slight embarrassment due to a bunch of looks people were giving them as they passed by.

"Maybe we should go somewhere less private," said Will as he pulled a pokeball out of his sleeve and sent out a Xatu who used Teleport to transport them all the four humans and Xatu to a small field not too far from the tournament but still far enough from any onlookers as far as Will could tell.

"So… what's this all about?" Ash asked confused by all the events that just took place

"I'm here because of what YOU might have done to my little sister! And I swear if she's pregnant I'll-"

"Lucian!" Anabel yelled with a red face, "I'm more then capable of taking care of myself!"

"Told ya Lucy. Have a little faith in her why don't ya?" Will suggested

"Oh, I don't want to hear it from you Mr. I-hope-I'm-an-uncle! And quit calling me that!" Lucian shot back at his masked brother

Will just shrugged with a mischievous grin on his face

"Uhhh… If I can interrupt? What are you guys talking about? What is this 'pregnant' thing is it some kind of pokemon?" Ash asked earning him three dumbfounded looks

"Y-you can't be serious?" Lucian asked as Will fell onto his back laughing like a madman

"A-Ash you DO know where babies come from right?" Anabel asked her dense boyfriend with a face as red as a tomato berry

"Huh? Yeah, Mom told me when I was little that Ho-oh brings babies to people after their married, why?" Ash asked with an honest expression

"Ha ha ha! And to think you were worried Lucian! Ah ha ha!" laughed Will still rolling on the grass

Lucian held a hand to his face trying to take in what he just heard from Anabel's boyfriend. Much like his psychic type pokemon Lucian had a better sense of whether people were telling the truth or not (even though it wasn't his TRUE psychic ability) and right now his senses were telling him that Ash was being completely honest with them. "Okay Ash, YOU need to talk to your mother and tell her to teach you about 'the birds and the Beedrill' and YOU (Anabel) are going to talk with me in private."

Before Ash or Anabel could object Lucian threw a pokeball which revealed to contain an Alakazam which teleported himself and Anabel to another location leaving Ash with a still-laughing Will who was just beginning to calm down.

"Okay, okay I'm done don't worry!" Will said as he stood up letting out a few small chuckles in the process

After a few moments of utter silence (besides the sounds of the field around them) Ash finally spoke up, "So your Anabel's older brother?"

"Yup! Wait you mean Anabel didn't tell you about me?" Will asked as he put his hand in front of his chest like he was having a heart attack, "She's already breaking my heart and she's not even married!"

"Well, we haven't really had a lot of time to talk about our families so that's probably why," Ash suggested hoping it would calm the masked trainer

Will just scoffed at Ash's remark "Yeah, yeah I know I've been keeping my eye on you two for about a week now actually so I already knew what you two have been doing."

At this Ash was surprised wondering how such a strange character could have been following them this whole time "Huh? How-?"

"Oh right well you know how Anabel has the ability to understand a pokemon's feelings?" Will asked to which Ash nodded, "Well you see our whole family has been given strong psychic abilities for a long time now and mine happens to be the ability to see the future… at certain times. So thanks to that about a week ago, I was able to see a vision where I saw you and Anabel sitting on top of a hill under a starry sky and I could tell there was something between you two."

Ash blushed at the statement and looked away from the masked trainer as he asked, "So are you in the tournament?"

To this Will sighed, "Yeah and wouldn't you know it I, an elite four member, just this morning lost to this emo-looking guy named Tobias and he-"

Before Will could finish his sentence Ash stopped him, "W-wait, you battled Tobias? And you're a member of the Elite Four?"

"Yes and yes and to top it all off he only used one pokemon and of ALL the pokemon out there it had to be a Darkrai. Wait do you know this guy?" Will asked but from the look of concern on Ash's face he decided not to press on with his question.

Ash thought for a moment he knew Tobias was tough but even with Darkrai how could he defeat an Elite Four member so easily? He knew that he HAD to be well prepared for Tobias whenever he encountered him otherwise this would no doubt turn out to be just like the Sinnoh league.

**Elsewhere (with Anabel and Lucian)**

Anabel and Lucian sat on a bench just in between the Grass stadium and the Forrest that surrounded the tournament area as Lucian explained himself to Anabel. Sure Lucian had always been protective of his sister in the past but sometimes Lucian took things a little too far and this was one of those situations.

Right now Lucian was busy trying to dig himself out of the hole he just buried himself in "Anabel just… listen I'm sorry I got angry back there it's just that Will told me he got a vision of you with someone a week ago and when I found you and him together and after all the stuff Will has been telling me all day-"

Anabel just held up her hand, "I know Lucian. You just wanted to protect me but I'm seventeen years old now so I can take care of myself. After all you've seen the battle tower remember?"

Lucian nodded he remembered the time Anabel had become a Frontier Brain after beating all of the frontier brains and when her frontier the Battle Salon was finished himself Will and even their mother had decided to visit in which Anabel gave them all a tour and after seeing how well she ran the place Lucian knew that his sister would be safe, or at least much safer then traveling around region to region anyway. However Lucian still worried about his little sister and being the oldest he felt a sense of responsibility towards her and even Will (even though he always got on his nerves).

Lucian was about to say something but suddenly a familiar voice was heard as Pikachu and Espeon came running through the bushes towards Anabel as Espeon jumped into her arms. "Oh, Espeon! How did you-? Weren't you with Ash?"

Espeon explained that when Xatu teleported Anabel, Ash, Lucian and Will, herself and Pikachu had been out of range of teleport's effect which separated them from both Ash and Anabel but Espeon's psychic abilities helped her find Anabel after the second teleportation. After Anabel explained to Lucian what Espeon had told her Lucian apologized for Will who he had realized was still with Will much to Pikachu's disappointment but after a pat on the head Anabel told Pikachu that ash would no doubt find them and everything would be fine and after a few short minutes of walking that's just what happened. Pikachu darted towards Ash as he picked the electric mouse up into a big hug glad to see his partner was all right.

"Well, at least everyone's all right." Lucian said with a smile that quickly faded as he looked directly at Ash, "Now there's one last thing I have to say to you Ash. It's too late for me to request you as an opponent for tomorrow's match but if you manage to pull through I WILL challenge you for the match after it and that's a promise."

Ash looked at Lucian in surprise and finally gave a familiar smile of confidence, "Sounds great! I'll be looking forward to it!"

At this Anabel smiled happy to see that Ash was back to his usual self until Will finally spoke up, "Hey maybe we should make a bet in case Ash wins! If he wins he can marry Anabel right then and there!"

At this Anabel and Ash's face became a bright red and before Anabel could say something back to her lecherous brother Lucian beat her too it, "Will you shut up you perverted circus monkey?! I can't believe you would even joke about betting your own sister!"

"Well, with such a protective brother like you I think the ONLY way Anabel will be able to get married is if they beat you in a battle and what better time than at the tournament where thousands are watching?" Will said as he turned around and began to run with a VERY angry Lucian chasing after him until they were out of sight.

"Uhhh… your brothers seem….. nice?" Ash said trying to make Anabel forget what Will just said

Anabel brought a hand to her forehead and sighed "Yes, but they still drive me crazy even after becoming a frontier brain."

Ash took Anabel's hand in his and led her back to their hotel with Pikachu sitting on his shoulder and Espeon walking just beside Anabel until they finally made it back and went into their separate rooms saying good night to each other.

_**Okay so I'm sure a lot of you guys are thinking 'How could you make Ash so stupid here?' because of the fact that Ash believes in the whole 'stork' thing (which I THINK I found an appropriate pokemon adaptation of the creature by using Ho-oh (after all would YOU entrust your baby to a Pigeot or a Fearow?)). Well here's my reasoning behind this; Ash has been on his pokemon journey since he was ten years old only coming back home for a short time so his mother never had a chance to explain 'the birds and the bees' to him as he got older and since Ash didn't care about anything besides training his pokemon he never would have been curious so he never would even bother to ask his mother in the first place.**_

_** Another thing I want to add is I've noticed that I haven't really been giving Pikachu much screen time or have even made Anabel use her powers to communicate with pokemon so I hope this chapter might be enough for a start at both of these important parts of Ash and Anabel's characters. Also what do you guys think of Lucian and Will being added to the story? I hope that you like the power that I gave Will and Lucian's power has NOT been revealed yet so… their's that (what you read in this chapter was Lucian's version of a 'mother's instinct' (only it was more of a 'psychic instinct'))**_

_**So… like it? Hate it? Leave a comment because you guys know how much I LOVE them!**_


	17. Chapter 17 Mischief, Waves and Bonds

_**So… sorry about not updating sooner (college is a pain) now for chapter 17. Let's see who's up on the battlefield today shall we?**_

**A restaurant**

Ash and his companions (who included Anabel, Brock, May, Max, Maylene, James, Gardenia, Nando, Kane, Erika and Kean) sat in the center of a restraint eating their breakfast while Erika spoke about their assigned battles for the day.

"So let's see… today Ash gets to fight Blaine in the grass stadium, Maylene is going up against an Elite four member from Unova named Marshall in the ice stadium and Kane fights Clair in the sky stadium? Did I get that right?" asked Erika as the group of friends gobbled down their breakfast.

"Yeah that sounds about right," Brock said

"I'm more interested in the fight Wake is having today," Maylene declared causing the whole table of friends to look at her

"Wake's in the tournament? Awesome! So Maylene who's he going up against?" Ash asked as he took a bite out of his eggs

"Believe it or not he's going up against one of his relatives, a gym leader from the Hoenn region named Brawly," Maylene announced

"I didn't know Brawley was related to Wake," Brock said as he took a sip of his coffee

"Even so Maylene you should be more concerned about your opponent considering he IS an Elite four member," Anabel said with concern for the young gym leader

"I know but still… it would be an interesting match and besides my match doesn't start until 6:30 PM and since Wake's match begins at 11:00 I've got plenty of time to see Wake and Brawley's match maybe I'll get a strategy before I fight Marshall." Maylene said with a grin as she snuck a look at Kean as he took a sip of his orange juice before she turned her attention back to her breakfast to avoid suspicion before thinking "_I should also try to see if I can train with Kean."_

When the group finished their meal they left the restaurant and went their separate ways. Maylene asked Kean if she could train with him and he agreed as long as she promised to help him with something and explained that a friend of his would be there as well. After a few minutes they wandered into the forest and came to a small clearing surrounded by trees where a familiar Bard was waiting for them.

"Hey Nando! I brought another friend to help us with that problem of mine," Kean said as the bard turned around and noticed Maylene.

"It is good to see you again Miss Maylene."

"You too Nando it's been a while hasn't it?"

"You know each other?" Kean questioned

"He once challenged my gym a while back. He was… definitely different compared to my other challengers," Maylene explained

"I'll take that as a compliment Ms. Maylene," said Nando with a bow

"Okay now can we get on with the-"

Before Kean could finish his sentence he felt an acorn land on top of his head and when he looked up his face became the landing zone for a soggy Oran berry which covered his face entirely and began to drip down onto his clothes. "And that's why we are here today," Kean explained trying to hold some dignity given the situation at hand

"So this is the Nuzleaf you told me about," Nando said as he looked up and noticed the trouble making Nuzleaf laughing like a mischievous child in the trees

"So what are we gonna do?" Maylene questioned Kean as he wiped the sticky-yet-tasty substance off his face

"I'm going to catch it but I need you two to keep it from running away like it always does," explained Kean as he sent out Kanda the Absol and proceeded to chase the mischievous Nuzleaf while Nando sent out his Kricketune and Maylene sent out her Lucario and proceeded to try and corner the Wiley Pokemon.

The Nuzleaf certainly didn't make it easy for them as every time it saw one of them it used Fake Out to cause the trainer's pokemon to flinch but thanks to Maylene's Lucario and its aura abilities they never lost track of the Wiley Pokemon even when it hid among the thickest of trees and bushes.

Finally after nearly an hour Nando, Maylene and Kean had finally cornered the Nuzleaf and with no way to escape Kean challenged it to a one on one battle to which Nuzleaf nodded and attacked Kanda with another Fake Out but Kean was prepared as he ordered Kanda to duck and use Night Slash knocking the Wiley pokemon back but it used Bullet Seed which came into contact with Kanda and continued to shoot from a distance but Kean quickly ordered Kanda to use Razor Wind which knocked all the projectiles away from Kanda causing Nuzleaf to look terrified before Kanda unleashed the maelstrom of Razor Wind onto the Wiley Pokemon causing it to be knocked backwards into the air.

Kean took advantage of the opportunity and threw a pokeball at the battered Nuzleaf as the pokeball rocked side to side the three of them waited in anticipation for the pokeball to click and to everyone's surprise the pokeball opened revealing an extremely tired Nuzleaf.

"You are a stubborn one. Kanda use Psycho Cut on the ground in front of Nuzleaf!" ordered Kean

Kanda obeyed and shot a blade of psychic energy at Nuzleaf's feet which caused a small shockwave of power to knock Nuzleaf backwards but it stayed on its feet and used Synthesis healing most of its injuries to everyone's surprise. Nuzleaf took advantage of this opportunity and used Faint Attack which sent Kanda flying backwards and landed on its side and Nuzleaf tried to use faint attack once more to end the battle but Kanda managed to use Razor wind just in time to stop the attack with a wall of razor sharp wind, which caused Nuzleaf to be tossed around like a leaf on a windy day. Kean then ordered Kanda to unleash it on the stunned Nuzleaf but suddenly the Wiley pokemon began to glow as its image seemed to fade a little before it resumed its normal appearance which was quickly followed by a shockwave of psychic energy which canceled out the Razor Wind but didn't affect Kanda in the slightest.

"Was that Extrasensory?" Maylene questioned to which Nando nodded in approval

"Luckily Kanda is unaffected by psychic type attacks but… that attack was very well done especially for the first time," Kean said in excitement happy to have found a strong Dark type pokemon… even if it was a trouble maker.

"All right Kanda use Night Slash!" Kean ordered as the Disaster Pokemon charged towards the confused Wiley Pokemon and struck it backwards to which Kean tossed another pokeball and this time the pokeball shoke three times before finally clicking meaning that after nearly two hours Kean had finally caught Nuzleaf.

"That was an excellent battle," Nando said as he played a few tunes on his Mew harp

"Yeah, he was good," Maylene said as she, Nando and Kean returned their respective pokemon back to their pokeballs

"So… what should I call you?" Kean said out loud to the pokeball that contained Nuzleaf "Hmmmm…. Oh Kazuma! Yeah that's fitting especially when it evolves."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Maylene questioned as Nando explained Kean's desire to give his pokemon names that began with the letter K and where the names were from manga or anime.

"That's… very unusual," Maylene said as Kean walked over to the two of them

"Thanks a lot guys I couldn't have caught this trouble maker without your help," Kean said with a grin

"_He looks so different then that time with his sister…"_ thought Maylene as she returned the smile and said "Oh don't worry it was a good exercise for me and Lucario before our next match."

"Which reminds me what time is it?"

"It is seven minutes to 11 right now," Nando explained which made Maylene face palm herself

"Huh? What's wrong?" Kean asked Maylene

"We're gonna miss Brawley and Wake's match!" Maylene explained as she and her two male companions began to run to the stadium

**Grass Stadium**

Ash was having a more difficult time dealing with Blain then he previously thought. So far he had managed to defeat Blain's Ninetails with Kingler and his Rapidash with Buizel but now that Blain brought out his Magmar and with Buizel's current condition Ash concluded that the Big Jaw pokemon didn't stand a chance. So now it was a rematch between Ash's Charizard and Blain's Magmar and neither of them were holding anything back.

"Charizard Flamethrower!"

"Magmar Fire blast!"

The two fire type attacks collided causing a huge explosion of heat that could be felt all the way to the top of the stands with everyone else sweating bullets by merely observing the match.

"Things are really heating up now," Blain said with a smirk "it's good to see that Charizard of yours has improved since our last fight but can it beat Magmar?"

"You'll soon find out!" Ash shot back as the two fire types charged towards each other with the crowd enjoying every moment of it

"_Good luck Ash,"_ Anabel thought as she watched her boyfriend's battle with Pikachu in her lap.

**Sky Stadium**

Kane on the other hand had his match nearly won with Clair's last pokemon being Kingdra while Kane hadn't lost one. However Kane did swap out his Skarmory for his Scizor just after Clair had called out her final pokemon, Kingdra.

"Now you sick little pervert, I will finish this!" Clair shouted as Kane smirked confidently and the battle continued toward its inevitable conclusion.

**Rock Stadium**

Maylene, Kean and Nando all had managed to make their way to the rock stadium just in time to see Wake's Gyarados defeat Brawley's Machoke. However Brawley didn't seem that worried as he sent out his second pokemon Hariyama.

"So we're gonna end this match with _that_ pokemon huh Brawls?" Wake asked

"You know it!" Brawley said with a smile

The crowd was completely confused by this statement after all it was a 3 on 3 match with Wake still having all three pokemon left and Brawley with two.

"Hey Maylene, do you have any idea what they might be talking about?" Kean asked

Maylene just shook her head and said, "Unfortunately I've never seen these two fight before so I don't know what they might be talking about but according to what Volkner has told me Wake and Brawley seem to have a tradition of using a certain pokemon in all of their battles."

"I wonder what it could be?" Nando questioned

In a matter of minutes with some surprising mobility Hariyama had managed to avoid Gyarados' Hydro Pump and had countered with an Ice Punch freezing the water/flying type and after a barrage of Arm thrusts Gyarados' ice shattered and the large Atrocious Pokemon fell down knocked out. In response Brawley and Hariyama did a completely synchronized chest beat followed by an excited shout (which Maylene guessed was a sort of war cry).

Wake recalled Gyarados and sent out his Floatzel and the battle began with neither side slowing down as Floatzel unleashed a barrage of Aqua jets by grabing hold of and using the momentum to sling-shot itself around the rocks and going back to Hariyama hitting it from multiple sides and then Wake ordered Floatzel to use hydro Pump to finish Hariyama off. However Brawley ordered Floatzel to counter this with Ice punch which froze the hydro pump and nullified it.

"Not bad Brawls…" Wake said with a proud grin

"Thanks now Hariyama use Surf!" ordered Brawley as water began to condense beneath Hariyama's feet and form a wave that the Arm Thrust Pokemon began to ride

"We'll see about that Floatzel use your Surf!" Wake shouted as Floatzel began to form its own wave and charge towards Hariyama

"Got ya! Now Hariyama jump up and use Ice punch on the water!" To this order Hariyama did exactly as it was told and instead of a wave against wave attack that most were expecting instead Hariyama's Surf had become a barrage of ice chunks that bombarded Floatzel's Surf causing the Sea Weasel Pokemon to be tossed out of the surf and into a nearby rock. With both pokemon exhausted Brawlety and Wake both knew this would be each of their pokemon's last attack.

"Floatzel, Aqua Jet!"

"Hariyama Seismic Toss!"

At this Floatzel charged at Hariyama covered in a jet of water and after the attack had made contact Hariyama had managed to grab hold of Floatzel, jump up into the air, and after building up some momentum by rolling in midair slammed the sea weasel down onto the rocky field below and when the dust settled both Floatzel and Hariyama were out cold.

With both pokemon unable to battle that left Brawley and Wake with only one pokemon each so after recalling their pokemon they both sent out the exact same pokemon… a Poliwrath.

"Huh… didn't see that coming," Kean stated

"Actually this is a very fitting finale for this battle," Nando claimed

"He's right Kean, Since Brawley is a fighting type specialist and Wake being a water type specialist adding to the fact that they are related, it wouldn't be too surprising to see them use a pokemon that shares both of their preferred types," Maylene explained

"Well, how would I know? I never really spent that much time in the Sinnoh region," Kean explained as he pulled out a case that contained approximately six badges including the Feather badge, Mind badge, Jet badge, Forest badge, Rainbow badge and Cascade badge.

"Wait, that's all the badges you've got?" Maylene asked as Kean nodded

"I only visited certain places in all but the Johto region to collect certain pokemon to build up my team and while I was in the area I figured I might as well test them out on any nearby gyms."

"Now that I recall you did have Skorupi, Houndour and Absol when I first met you, yes?" Nando stated

Kean nodded as an explosion was heard in the stadium causing everyone to return their attention to Wake and Brawley's battle. From the look of things both of them seemed evenly matched with each other's respective Poliwrath breathing heavily as they awaited their trainer's order.

"Let's finish this with hydro Pump!" Wake shouted

"Use Submission!" Brawley shot back

Then to the surprise of all the spectators in the stadium Brawley's Poliwrath charged headfirst towards Wake's Poliwrath and just when it was in arm's reach Wake's Poliwrath shot it's hydro pump causing Brawley's Poliwrath to be knocked backwards but it didn't back down despite its situation.

"Don't give up! Let's finish this with a big splash!" Brawley shouted and as if on cue Brawley's Poliwrath began to charge towards Wake's Poliwrath with near unbelievable speed and grabbed hold of Wake's Poliwrath and proceeded to roll about and toss Wake's Poliwrath into a wall where Wake's Poliwrath fell down defeated.

Wake returned his Poliwrath and began to laugh "Ha ha ha! That was an excellent battle!"

Brawley returned his Poliwrath to its pokeball and said "Yeah let's battle again sometime but let's do it at my place. There are some excellent waves this time of year."

"I just might take you up on that offer," Wake said as he and Brawley shook hands while the crowd around them clapped including Kean, Nando and Maylene.

"Awww… Isn't family just wonderful?" Maylene said with a smile at Kean

Kean shuddered a little at the word _family_ but quickly regained his composure and smiled back and said, "Yes… it is."

Before Maylene or Nando could even say anything else Kean stood up and said, "If you two could excuse me, I'm gonna try and get some training done with Kazuma. So I'll see you later!"

Kean ran off and disappeared into the crowd without another word leaving Nando and Maylene sitting beside each other in silence until Nando finally spoke, "You appear to be troubled Ms. Maylene."

"Huh? Oh I'm just worried about Kean. You see I saw him and his sister-"

Nando held up his hand and said, "Yes, Kean does seem to have been hiding something from everyone but do you think it's your place to intrude in his life?"

"Well… I just…" Maylene took a deep breath and said, "I just don't like it when my friends are upset and since he's Kane's friend that alone shows that he's not a bad person so I just want to help him."

Nando smiled and said, "I see… well then shall I assist you then? I am also Kean's friend and I too prefer to have my friends in peaceful spirits."

Maylene smiled and nodded and just like that the gym leader and the Bard decided to find the one other person that could help them find more secrets about Kean… his sister Phoebe.

**Outside the Grass Stadium**

Anabel and Pikachu waited for Ash on a bench with Pikachu sitting on the Salon maiden's lap just like inside the stadium and were having a pretty decent conversation.

"Ketchup? You really prefer ketchup over poffins?" Anabel asked

"_Oh yeah! Ketchup is the best! I mean you humans put it on everything so how come I'm the only one that likes having just plain ketchup?"_ Pikachu asked

Before Anabel could respond she felt a cold, wet and metallic feeling on her cheek causing her to jump just a bit with a startled squeal. As the Salon maiden turned her head she looked up to see Ash holding two sodas with a huge grin on his face as he began chuckling.

"Hey that's not funny!" Anabel said with a pout

"But you look so cute when your startled," Ash said with a chuckle as he sat down beside her and handed her a soda.

Anabel blushed a little at being called 'cute' but quickly distracted herself with a quick sip of her soda while Pikachu also began chuckling while Anabel thought mischievously, "_Well, we'll just see who's laughing when I get you two back."_

"So… I'm up against your brother tomorrow and I was wondering… if you could help me try and get some psychic type training done?" Ash asked

"Of course but don't think that I'll go easy on you just cause we're dating," Anabel said

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Ash said as he and Anabel brought their sodas together in a sort of fist bump/sort of toast.

_**Okay so maybe this wasn't the best chapter considering how long I've left you guys (and girls) waiting but I think the battle with Wake and Brawley was nice, don't you? (Am I really the only one who thinks those two could be related?) Just so you know I didn't bother to explain exactly how they are related because I'm not sure how old they both are so I couldn't say they were uncle and nephew or just cousins.**_

_**If you're wondering about Maylene's battle well… you'll have to wait until next chapter. (As for Kane and Clair's battle… well how do you think it turned out? (Seriously it should be no surprise about who won)**_


End file.
